BENGALURU: Facing charges of delaying the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP), K-RIDE, the nodal agency for implementing the project, laid the blame at the door of Indian Railways. A top official said that even tenders could not be called for two of four corridors of the 148.17-km project as South Western Railway (SWR) did not give the green signal.
“We have submitted our proposal to the Railways in connection with the alignment of the line for Corridor 1 (KSR Bengaluru to Devanahalli) and Corridor 3 (Kengeri to Whitefield). The Railways is yet to approve them. So we are not able to issue tenders to begin work,” he said.
The proposal for the Airport suburban line was submitted to the Bengaluru division on July 5, 2022. “SWR returned the observations on September 22 and we replied to it on November 22, 2022. However, we still haven’t got the green signal for its alignment,” the official said.
Regarding the Corridor-3 line (Parijata) from Kengeri to Whitefield, another official said the alignment plan was submitted between Whitefield and Cantonment to the Chief Project Manager of Gati Shakti on December 29 last year for approval.
“SWR advised K-RIDE on March 13 this year to undertake a detailed study on the inoperability issues on sharing of a corridor by both Indian Railways and BSRP. RITES was issued a letter of authorisation on May 18, 2023, to carry out a feasibility study for sharing of a corridor between trains operated by Suburban Rail and Indian Railways, where quadrupling of tracks is presently on. The study is under progress,” he said.
The alignment between Bengaluru Cantonment and Kengeri is in an advanced stage of finalisation, he added. The ongoing tender being evaluated for Corridor 4 or Kanaka Line (Heelalige to Rajanakunte) was issued despite the chief transportation planning manager and chief planning and design engineer of SWR still giving their consent, another official said. Asked for a response to the charges, a senior railway official of SWR said he would get back.