BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Monday fixed deadlines for two keenly awaited Metro projects - June 2025 for the 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, who is also the chairman of the committee, conducted a virtual meeting with top officials on the Phase 2A and 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 `14,788.1 crore. The approvals came after a huge delay, with the State government having approved both projects in January 2019. “The committee 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),” BMRCL MD Rakesh Singh told TNIE.
Referring to the land acquisition status of the projects, Singh said that 100 per cent of the land had been acquired for the ORR line, while 87 per cent had been acquired for the Airport line. The last date for opening of tenders for the latter has just been postponed to June 14. As per the DPR report readied for the two lines, the ORR Line would carry a daily ridership of 3.38 lakh commuters in 2025, 4.49 lakh in 2031, and 5.83 lakh. The Airport Line will have 17 stations and was approved by the state on January 19, 2019, for `10,584.15 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.