The announcement comes a day after the Karnataka government approved an expenditure of Rs1,745 crore for implementation of Bengaluru Metro’s proposed network’s first phase. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/MintBengaluru: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced that an amount of Rs17,000 crore would be spent on the development of a 160-km of suburban railway network for Bengaluru—a much needed boost to country’s over-crowded information technology (IT) capital. “A suburban network of approximately 160 kilometres at an estimated cost of Rs17,000 crore is being planned to cater to the growth of the Bengaluru metropolis,” Jaitley said during his budget speech. The announcement comes a day after the Karnataka government approved an expenditure of Rs1,745 crore for implementation of the proposed network’s first phase. However, governments have also been looking at less capital intensive options like a suburban railway system and increasing the number of buses.

Source: Mint February 01, 2018 09:47 UTC