Is suburban train Centre's gift to state or an added burden?
- Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech had announced allocation to suburban trains in Karnataka
- Out of the total Rs 12,061 crore set aside for the project, Karnataka government will have to chip in with half the money
FollowFinance Minister Arun Jaitley in his Budget speech had announced allocation to suburban trains in Karnataka. But when looked into financial aspect of this, a question arises, if this is really a gift from the Centre to Karnataka?
The Karnataka government should provide 50% of the money for the Bengaluru Suburban train project announced by the Centre in the Budget, said Southwest Railways General Manager Ashok Kumar Gupta.
This project will enable a stretch of 160 km railway track. In the budget, Finance Minister Jaitley had said that Rs 17,000 crore will be allotted for the project. But according to the pink book details, only Rs 12,061 crore have been kept aside.
The state government has already allotted Rs 349 crore for the project. Now, it will have to arrange a total of 6,030 crore (50%) to complete the project.
But as the project is important and will be of help to Karnataka, the state is all set to allocate the remaining amount. Thus the credit must be equally shared by the Centre and state. Thus, it might not be right to say it is a burden on the state, but it is also not right to say that it is the Centre's gift to Karnataka.
