Public Investment Board meeting on metro rail project on August 5

Public Investment Board meeting on metro rail project on August 5

The Hindu

BMRTL says it has answers to all the 14 clarifications

BANGALORE: The meeting of the Public Investment Board (PIB) to decide on the Bangalore metro rail project did not take place in New Delhi on Friday. Instead it will be held on August 5 for which a notice has been issued.

Confident of approval from the PIB, the Managing Director of the Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Limited (BMRTL), K.N. Shrivastava, told The Hindu from Delhi that the BMRTL, the nodal agency to implement the project, had answers to all the 14 clarifications, sought by the PIB.

He clarified that it was for the promoters — Government of Karnataka and the Union Government — to address the issue of running costs. The project was expected to incur losses for the initial six years. As for the gauge issue the metro would be going in for the standard gauge as against broad gauge.

The Ministry of Law, he said, had expressed the opinion that it could come under the Tramways Act and not the Railways.

The Tramways Act, however, needed to be amended.

While the BMRTL was awaiting clearance from PIB, it had hit another roadblock with delays in land acquisition by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board for which it had deposited Rs. 20 crores.

The BMRTL requirement was 70 acres from the KIADB, while it had acquired 102 acres of defence land.

"I should have got the land yesterday," Mr. Shrivastava stated and added that it would adversely impact the project schedule.

The file was pending with the Minister for Industries, P.G.R. Sindhia, who was reported to have said that he would have a proper scrutiny of the land acquisition.