Put airport corridor in the fast lane too; Bengaluru experts

After the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) (K-RIDE) invited tender for corridor 4 of the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP) project a week ago, city-based experts say it would have been prudent to prioritise the airport corridor first. Corridor 4 will connect Heelalige in south Bengaluru to Rajanukunte in the north. Bids have been invited for the work of design and construction of 8.96 km of elevated viaduct at-grade track formation of length 37 .920 km. As per the tender document, the last date for bid submission is April 27. While city-based rail activists and mobility experts have welcomed the step, they opine that K-RIDE should have prioritised the airport corridor first as Bengaluru airport is one of the fastest-growing airports, and with terminal 2 in operation, the traffic is only going to increase over the coming days. They say the expedition of the KSR Bengaluru City – Devanahalli corridor, as recommended by various authorities in the past will also cater to busy areas of the city such as Malleshwaram, Yeshwantpur and Yelahanka before it reaches the airport. “While the airport corridor project under Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) is also in progress, it will cater to only a fraction of the city, on the outskirts. While BMRCL’s 58-km airport corridor touches the eastern and northern edges of the city, the airport corridor of suburban rail is planned right at the heart of Bengaluru. Moreover, the City and Yeshwantpur Stations also have BMTC bus stands and Metro stations nearby. Thus, the entire functional metro network will have access to the airport,” said a city-based urban mobility expert. Activists say K-RIDE can split the first corridor project into two parts and expedite the process. The suburban rail project has been delayed in the past due to land acquisition issues. While the project with four corridors was cleared by the Union government in October 2020 at a sanctioned cost of Rs. 15,767 crore, work on the first corridor is yet to begin. This is despite the Centre’s recommendation to prioritise the KSR Bengaluru City – Devanahalli and complete it within three years. The rest of the corridors were allotted six years from the sanction date. Under this project, four corridors are envisioned to be constructed with a total length of 148 km. Notably, the Heelalige to Rajanukunte stretch is the second of four corridors for which tenders have been called. K-RIDE has already issued a work order for civil works of corridor 2 from Baiyappanahalli to Chikkabanavara. Also Read NTPC invites bids for BoS for 1 GW Solar Projects Andhra to spend Rs 110,000 million to reform power distribution