Victorian premier pushing on with rail project despite funding scrutiny
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has dismissed mounting opposition against the Suburban Rail Loop (SRL), calling it a project the state "simply can't afford not to build".
Fresh from her trip to India, Allan toured an SRL site in Burwood to announce the government had signed another major contract in the controversial project.
Allan said the order was in for new tunnel boring machines, which would be in the ground within two years.
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Allan toured an SRL site in Burwood to announce the government had signed another major contract in the controversial project. Nine
That's despite ongoing uncertainty about who will pay for the $35 billion project.
While she was touring Delhi, the Parliamentary Budget Office and the National Audit Office both questioned the value of the SRL.
It emerged $2.2 billion in promised federal funding was yet to be delivered because the case for it had not been made.
But Allan insisted the SRL was "a project that absolutely stacks up".
"Melbourne is the biggest city in the country ... and it deserves to get its fair share of infrastructure funding," Allan said.
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