Railway land required for the Bengaluru suburban rail project would be soon handed over to KRIDE — Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited — the agency implementing the 148 km network, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said here on December 18, Sunday.
Replying to a question on the delay in transferring railway land for the project during an interaction organised by the BJP, the Minister said, “I personally reviewed the Bengaluru suburban rail project three times in the last one year. There are significant modifications in designs brought in to make the project successful. The land allocation for the first leg of the project is already in process. Within a few days, land allocations will happen. We have already asked KRIDE to go ahead with the project.”
The Minister said there was a need to build the suburban rail project on the lines of Mumbai suburban rail which carries over 85 lakh passengers with a totally modern version.
“The cost of the metro is huge which is about ₹250 crore to ₹300 crore per km. We have taken the challenge of building a network which is less than ₹100 crore per km. I am very excited to share that our engineers have come up with innovative designs. We are confident of delivering a world-class suburban rail system in Bengaluru.”
In the first phase of the project, the KRIDE has issued a work order for implementing Baiyappanahalli to Chikkabanvara, a 25 km line. Though preliminary work has begun, the project going at a fast pace allegedly due to South Western Railway buying time to transfer the land.
Replying to a question on running Vande Bharat train services between Chennai-Mysuru via Bengaluru at a speed similar to that of the Shatabdi Express, the Minister said, “Tracks were laid for design speed of 70 to 80 kmph. Over the last 8 years, a significant number of tracks were upgraded to run train over 100 to 110 kmph. Now, measures have been taken to increase the speed to 130 kmph. The next stage will be to increase the speed to 160 kmph. It is a very complex process as there is a need to remove curves, change the gradients, etc.”
Online games
When asked about the Centre’s stand on online ‘game of chance’ which is facing vehement opposition from various State governments cutting across party lines, the Minister said, “We had IT Ministers representing States across the country, every States shown serious concern about the fact that online gaming is having on the society, especially addictive part which is going against the social norms. We created a very serious consultation process, we should be able to come up with a proper policy very soon for regulation of these online games,” the Minister said.
The State government too had introduced new law banning online gambling and skill-based gaming platforms. However, The Karnataka High Court had struck down the amendments to the Karnataka Police Act.
Replying to a question on any concerns expressed by the IT industry over Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, the Minister said, “So far the response to the Bill is very good. Most of the Industry participants are saying that the Bill will be a template to the world because there is a very good balance between innovation ecosystem and protecting personal privacy. We extended the time because many of the ministries wanted more time for submissions. A lot informal meetings were held. Absolutely there are no major concerns. Most of the experts in the IT field are all happy with the Bill.”
On the Digital India Bill, the Minister said that consultation documents will be published in coming days for people to give their views.
Designing Vande Metro
The Centre has taken measures to build ‘world class’ Vande Metro which will be a big lead forward in terms of superior designs than the current generation of trains. The new trains will be manufactured in large numbers and trains that were designed in the 1960s and 1970s will be replaced.
The Minister said the Railways will roll out the first indigenously designed and manufactured hydrogen-powered train by the end of 2023.