Union Budget: Kerala gets Rs 65,000 crore for NH works, Rs 1957 cr for Kochi Metro

For poll-bound Kerala, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday allotted Rs 65,000 crore in the Union Budget for 1,100 km of National Highway works including 600 km section of Mumbai-Kanyakumari corridor passing through the state.

Another takeaway for Kerala is allocation of Rs 1957.05 crore for the Kochi Metro Railway Second Phase of 11.5 km with 11 stations. This will help in extending the Kochi's Metro up to Kakkanad.

The Minister also spoke about the central counterpart funding to various Metro Rail projects while presenting the Union Budget 2021-22 in the Parliament.

"Central counterpart funding would be provided to Kochi Metro Railway Phase 2- of 11.5 km at a cost of Rs 1,957.05 crores and Chennai metro railway Phase 2 of 118.9 km at a cost of Rs 63,246 crores. The Bengaluru Metro Project- Phase 2A and 2B of 58.19 km will be provided funding of Rs 14,788 crores. While the Nagpur Metro Project Phase 2 and the Nashik Metro Project would be provided amounts of Rs 5,976 crores and Rs 2,092 crores respectively," she added.

Reacting to the announcements made in the budget, BJP state president K Surendran said: "Kerala got a very special space in the budget with allotment form national Highway works and Kochi Metro and on behalf of the people of Kerala; I thank the Prime Minister and Finance Minister."

The Finance Minister had announced that two new technologies -- MetroLite and MetroNeo -- will be deployed to provide metro rail systems at a much lesser cost in Tier 2 cities and peripheral areas of Tier 1 cities of the country.

( With inputs from ANI )