Bangalore : Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Revanna on Monday demanded a probe into the huge cost escalation of the Namma Metro project.  
Participating in the budget discussion at the Assembly, he said that the cost of the project has shot up from Rs 6,395 crore to Rs 15,352 crore, since 2007.

Revanna said, a loss of Rs 50 lakh per day is  being incurred because of delay in implementation. The project was sanctioned Rs 6,395 crore in April 2007, with an estimate of Rs 193 crore per km.

The cost was later revised in August 2011 and estimated to be Rs 11,609 crore at Rs 274 crore per km. In recent times, it was further revised to Rs 15,352 crore, amounting to Rs 362.95 crore per km.

“Namma Metro was scheduled to be completed by 2012. But it is now set to be completed only by 2015. The cost is likely to go up by Rs 4,000 crore to Rs 5,000 crore by the time it is commissioned. Though there is no clarity regarding the completion of Phase-I project, the government has decided to go ahead with Metro Phase-II, spanning 72 km, at a cost of Rs 26,409 crore,” he said.  

“The construction of a similar Metro is on the cards in Tamil Nadu, and the cost is much lesser than ours. The Tamil Nadu government has planned the underground Metro without any hassles of land acquisition. Their estimate is said to be Rs 300 crore per km.”

Revanna criticised  Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s proposal to continue with the previous government’s decision to hike VAT rate by 0.5 per cent.

“As the Opposition leader, Siddaramaiah had then criticised the decision and demanded its rollback. Now, after becoming the chief minister, he has decided to continue with it. It is, in a way, accepting the BJP’s policy,” he said.