BENGALURU: A whopping Rs 2,075 crore will go towards acquiring land for the 161 km suburban rail network planned for the city, said Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Railway Division R S Saxena. The Detailed Project Report is likely to be ready within three or four months. Briefing reporters on Monday about the suburban rail, Saxena said he did not foresee any delays in the project due to land acquisition. “The rail corridor required to run trains requires only 15 acres. There would not be any land issues,” he said. The DRM said, “The pre-feasibility report was prepared within a record time of 5 to 6 weeks. We have asked RITES to ready the DPR within three to four months. It generally takes six months for such big projects.”
The overall suburban project would also include the 142 km okayed in the Railway budget and the 19 km route between Bangalore Cantonment and Whitefield which is being quadrupled at a cost of `492 crore.
The overall cost works out to be `17,000 crore, of which `12,413 crore has been sanctioned as infrastructure cost to be shared by the Centre and the state. A presentation on the suburban route was presented for the first time. The project specifies circular, diagonal as well as radial routes. The 45 km circular route is as follows: KSR Bengaluru-Yesvantpur-Yelahanka-Channasandra-Baiyappanahalli-KSR Bengaluru.