Bengaluru Metro stretch to Whitefield will be ready next month, says Karnataka Governor

The Baiyapanahalli-Whitefield stretch runs over 15.81 km and will have two reaches – R1A, an 8.67-km stretch from Baiyappanahalli to Seetharama Palya, and R1B, a 7.14-km stretch from Seetharama Palya to Whitefield.

The line is expected to benefit around 3 lakh passengers. It will come as a welcome relief to thousands of commuters who are forced to endure over two hours in traffic every day to get to Whitefield from the city or vice-versa.

The Purple Line (Baiyappanahalli-Whitefield) will have stops at Benniganahalli, KR Puram, Mahadevapura, Garudacharpalya, Hoodi Junction, Seetharama Palya, Kundalahalli, Nallurhalli, Sri Sathya Sai Hospital, Pattandur Agrahara (ITPL), Kadugodi and Channasandra. Once the work is completed, the overall journey is expected to take around 72 minutes.

Last month, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) invited the commissioner of Metro rail safety to inspect the work between KR Puram and Whitefield. “The commissioner is expected to start the inspection work on February 16 and submit the report in four to five days, after which we will begin trial runs. We are expecting the stretch to be ready for operations from March this year,” BMRCL MD Anjum Parvez said.

The metro rail corporation, meanwhile, has a challenge to address on the Baiyappanahalli-KR Puram stretch in the form of a railway crossing near the Baiyappanahalli depot and the opening could be delayed beyond March in this section.

The KR Puram-Whitefield stretch is set to open first in March while the Baiyapanahalli-KR Puram link is likely to open only by June, with commuters having to rely on feeder bus services to travel between Baiyappanahalli and KR Puram in the interim period.

The BMRCL suffered a setback recently in construction activities following the collapse of an under-construction Metro pillar on January 10 on a new stretch at Nagavara in East Bengaluru. A young woman and her two-year-old daughter, who were riding pillion on a motorcycle, were killed in the pillar collapse while her husband and son survived.