Piyush Goyal clears pending issues of suburban project after surprise visit to Bengaluru
In what comes as a pleasant surprise, Union railways minister paid a surprise visit to Bengaluru and cleared issues related to the suburban project. CM HD Kumaraswamy thanked the minister for his generosity and welcomed him personally to the stone-laying ceremony.
FollowBengaluru: Union railways minister Piyush Goyal was in the city and met Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to hold talks over the issue. The meeting ended on a happy note as both the CM and the railways minister agreed to put an end to many technical issues plaguing the suburban railway project and help its construction soon. The union minister had been to Tirupati, but took a detour to have a meeting with the CM.
“I had gone to Tirupati. On my way back, I wanted to review the working of the southwestern railway. In February I spoke to the CM and asked him to resolve it. But that had not happened. Today, I called him up and asked him to resolve it. In one go, all conditions have been met,” Piyush Goyal, the Union minister for railways said.
The minister spoke thoroughly on the progress the railways had made in the state.
“Karnataka has seen railway development like never before. It is now three times as before. From 2004 to 2014, it was 23 kilometres per year. Now it is 67 kilometres per year after 2014. Doubling of lines is up by two times and electrification also increased by 21 times,” he said.
And relating to the issue of suburban network in the city, he said, “I saw that the suburban project had come to a stalemate. The project had been under discussion for 20 years. When I became railways minister in 2017, I came to Bengaluru in September 2017. It was former Union minister Anant Kumar’s dream to see suburban trains in Bengaluru.”
Piyush Goyal had ordered a feasibility check and how he had included the project in the budget last year.
“I ordered a feasibility study and got its report in 30 days. We included this project in the budget of 2018. And on 17 December 2018, we put it up for approval. You would not have seen a project worth Rs 21,000 crore be approved so easily. We even changed the ratio from 80:20 to 50:50,” he added.
The sudden and surprise move to clear all dues has earned Piyush Goyal a number of praises.
“I am delighted that the 30-year-long-pending Bengaluru Suburban Rail project will soon be a reality and congratulate Union railway minister Shri Piyush Goyal and Chief Minister Shri HD Kumaraswamy for resolving the issues and removing all hurdles for the project,” said PC Mohan, BJP MP from Bangalore Central thanking the minister “for walking the extra mile.”
