Karnataka’s infrastructure development budget has more than doubled with Rs 939.6 crore allocated this fiscal, which the government will use to double down on airports and railway projects.
A government order has been issued allocating funds for the Infrastructure Development department, which had a budget of Rs 417 crore in 2020 and the figure has been decreasing year on year.
Since 2008, the department’s highest budget allocation was Rs 809.68 crore in 2016-17.
“We have Shivamogga and Vijayapura airports, whose works are going on. We propose to spend money this year to start work on airports in Hassan, Raichur and Karwar,” Additional Chief Secretary (Infrastructure Development) Kapil Mohan told DH.
One more airport will come up in Ballari city on public-private partnership, Mohan said. “Work will start this year and it’s totally funded privately,” he said.
Over the last two years, Karnataka commissioned airports at Kalaburagi and Bidar.
The government is also working on setting up a joint venture company with the Airports Authority of India for speedy construction and development of airports and helipads.
Of the Rs 939.6 crore budget, Rs 298 crore is earmarked for airports, according to the government order.
A bigger share of the budget - Rs 490 crore - will go towards railway projects.
“As far as railway projects go, we have our quota full and we’re a bit overstretched. This year, we have not yet planned any new railway projects. But, we want to take up construction of and complete old, lingering projects,” Mohan said.
Railway projects are taken up on a cost-sharing basis between the state and the Centre.
In the 2021-22 budget, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa announced that the government would take up seven projects for laying 1,173 km of railway lines at a cost of Rs 7,984 crore. The state government’s share will be Rs 3,991 crore.
Yediyurappa also announced in the Budget that the government would take up work on the 73-km-long Dharwad-Kittur-Belagavi railway line, for which the government has set aside
Rs 463 crore.
“My department does a lot of things on a partnership basis. The budget we have is more like a seed fund,” Mohan said.