Bengaluru, (DHNS): Ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, the Centre on Thursday announced a big ticket investment - the suburban railway project - for Bengaluru to help residents of surrounding areas to commute to the IT city.

"A suburban network of approximately 160 kilometres at an estimated cost of Rs 17,000 crore is being planned to cater to the growth of the Bengaluru metropolis," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his General Budget speech.

The minister also announced a similar transport system for Mumbai, with an investment of Rs 40,000 crore.

Both the projects will be self-financing models, which the railways will implement through public-private partnership. Besides, the national transporter will also raise funds from its own sources through monetising its assets like land, advertisements and other sources.

Elevated lines

Of the total 160-km lines, some parts will be elevated. The new lines will come up along the existing railway routes in and around Bengaluru.

The project also involves modernising over a dozen railway stations in and around the city to provide better facilities to commuters, a senior official in the railways told DH.

The project will not only help people from surroundings areas to come to the city without hassle, but also ease the pressure in the IT city, he said.

The new lines will be laid in a such way that the national transporter should be able to run high-speed trains, which can run up to 90 to 125 km an hour, an official in the railways said.

In the project, private railway operators and developers will be engaged in different tasks for building the new railway network, the official said.

A separate special purpose vehicle (SPV) will be set up, in which the Karnataka government and Ministry of Railways are partners.

Besides contributing money for the SPV, the the state government may have to allocate land for station development as well as the rolling stock (trains) yards in the city and laying new lines, the official said.