BENGALURU: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday evening fixed deadlines for two keenly awaited Metro projects.
The deadlines are June 2025 for the much awaited Outer Ring Road line and September 2025 for the Airport Line. The Metropolitan Planning Committee gave the green signal for both these projects.
The CM, also the chairman of the Committee, conducted a virtual meeting with top officials on the Phase 2A and Phase 2B lines of BMRCL, which were added to the initially proposed 72.3 km Metro Phase-II projects. Both projects were approved by the Centre on April 28 this year for a total cost of Rs 14,788.1 crore. This comes after a huge delay as the State government had approved both projects in January 2019.
“The Committee today cleared the projects. The CM has given us a June 2025 deadline for the 19.75 km 2A line (Silk Board to K R Puram) and September 2025 for the 38.44 km 2B line (K R Puram to Kempegowda International Airport),“ Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited Managing Director Rakesh Singh told The New Indian Express.
Referring to the land acquisition status of the projects, Singh said that 100% of land had been acquired for the ORR line while 87% had been acquired for the Airport line. The last date for opening of tenders for the Airport Line has just been postponed to June 14.
On other pre-project activities being done, Singh said that more than 50% of the utilities had been shifted while the designs and drawings were ready for major structures.
As per the DPR report readied for the two lines, the ORR Line would carry a daily ridership of 3.38 lakh in 2025, 4.49 lakh in 2031 and 5.83 lakh. This line with 13 stations was approved at the cost of Rs 5994.9 crore on January 24, 2019.
The Airport Line will have 17 stations and was approved by the State on January 19, 2019 for Rs 10584.15 crore. The estimated daily ridership on this line is 4.33 lakh in 2025, 8.35 lakh in 2031 and 11.14 lakh in 2041.