Bengaluru suburban rail project: Karnataka Govt finalises Rs 859 crore tender for second corridor

The state government has spent Rs 120 crore for the preparatory work for the suburban railway, which will run over a total span of 148 km around the city, added Somanna.

The implementing agency for the suburban railway project, the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited or K-RIDE, has issued the work order for the Rs 859 crore second corridor to Larsen & Toubro. The second corridor is incidentally the first phase of the project which has a scheduled completion deadline of 2026.

The project has been in the works for over 40 years and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to Bengaluru in June said the project will now be completed in 40 months. Modi said he would ensure the completion of the Bengaluru suburban rail project within 40 months.

Reacting to the claim by Modi, former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said the BJP government at the Centre allotted only Rs 1 crore for the project in 2019 against a proposed Rs 23000 crore that had been agreed by the Karnataka government and the Railways Ministry in 2019. Kumaraswamy was the chief minister during that period.

In March this year, the infrastructure minister said the suburban rail project will comprise four corridors—Bengaluru City to Yelahanka to Devanahalli (41.40 km), Baiyappanahalli to Chikabanavara (25.01 km), Kengeri to Whitefield (35.52 km), and Heelalige to Rajanakunte (46.24 km).

“We have floated tenders for now and a technical bid is under process. By March 31 we will be issuing a work order for corridor-2,” the minister had stated in March, adding the suburban rail project had been delayed due to land acquisition issues.

The Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project aims to link Bengaluru to its satellite townships, suburbs, and surrounding rural areas. There are 57 stations planned across four corridors in the current suburban rail plan.

The project was first proposed in 1983 by an expert team from the Southern Railways and was estimated to run across 58 km. The proposal was part of Karnataka’s first Transportation Survey commissioned by the then chief minister R Gundu Rao.