A week following a high level meeting between the Karnataka Chief Minister and top railway officials, the state cabinet approved the suburban rail project connecting Bengaluru and its suburbs. The 161-km-strong suburban rail network will have 81 stations, spaced at an average of 1.8 km from each other in four corridors.
In a related announcement, the state government also tweaked the proposed metro expansion plan to the Kempegowda International Airport. With this, the airport line from Nagawara will pass through Hebbal and Jakkur costing another Rs 5,000 crore. Earlier, the route was proposed through Ramakrishna Hegde Nagar.
The CM announced that funding for the project will be sanctioned in the February budget.
The project will cost Rs 23,093 crore, the Cabinet noted, as opposed to Rs 19,500 crore estimated by RITES Ltd. Forty per cent of the cost will be funded by the state and central government equally, while the rest will be financed.
As reported earlier, basic infrastructure for these routes already exists with around 52 stations requiring platforms to be built and in some cases, doubling or quadrupling of tracks needs to be done.
The state government approved plan, will have five elevated stations in the 35.47-km corridor between Kengeri – Bengaluru Cantonment – Whitefield route. Other works will involve 20-km of quadrupling of tracks.
The Bengaluru City – Yelahanka – Rajankunti corridor will be 23.88 km long and will have elevated tracks for 9.48km on one side and on two sides for 7.3 km. Out of the 13 stations, nine will be elevated.
The Nelamangala – Mathikere – Baiyyappanahalli line of 39.94 km will have two tracks elevated along 18km and another 2.88 km for single track.
The Heelalige – Yelahanka – Devanahalli (near the airport)— line will be 61,36km with 14.63 km of elevated tracks.
TNM has earlier reported how according to estimates by 2025, the suburban rail will see more than double the daily ridership of Bengaluru metro in its existing form.