BENGALURU: Union Minister of State for Railways V Somanna and Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil jointly announced the partial opening of the 148-km Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) by December 2026, on Monday.
Of the four corridors of the Rs 15,767-crore project, two corridors -- the 25.01km Chikkabanavara-Baiyappanahalli line (Corridor-2) and Heelalige -Rajanukunte line (Corridor-4) -- will be opened. The possibility of connecting BSRP with the proposed 287-km Circular Rail Network project was also discussed. Briefing the media after a progress review meet with Rail Infrastructure Development Company Karnataka (K-Ride), the nodal agency for BSRP, the minister said officials have requested three months’ time to resolve land acquisition issues and have been instructed to adhere to the deadline.
The announcement pushes the 40-month deadline for completion of the BSRP announced by PM Narendra Modi, when he laid the foundation in June 2022, with October 2025 as the deadline. The ministers emphasised that these two corridors will be completed within the deadline set by Modi. Somanna said, “After this, implementation of the other two corridor projects will be discussed.”
Patil stressed the lack of bidders for tenders issued by K-Ride for supply of coaches for the suburban project. Somanna assured him that a meeting would be arranged with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in Delhi to readdress the issue.
Connecting the suburban network with the proposed 287-km Peripheral (Circular) Network being planned at a cost of Rs 23,000 crore was also discussed. The network will connect Vaddarahalli, Devanahalli, Malur, Heelalige, Hejjala and Solur, and the Detailed Project Report is getting ready. Patil also requested extension of the suburban rail network to neighbouring cities and towns.
The feasibility of extending Corridor-1 of the Suburban Rail network directly to Kolar from Devanahalli, rather than through Chikkaballapur, was also discussed, said an official release.
Aravind Srivastava, General Manager of South Western Railway, Maheshwara Rao, BMRCL MD, Tushar Girinath, Chief Commissioner of BBMP, and N Manjula, MD of K-ride were present.
RWF TO FULLY STOP RELYING ON BWSSB
BENGALURU: The Rail Wheel Factory will be setting up a mega Water Softening Plant within its premises which will augment the present one which is much smaller, General Manager of RWF R Rajagopal told TNIE. “It will help remove the scales and hard salts present in the cooling water used in RWF and soften it,” he said.
The RWF presently makes use of 1.93 lakh litres of water in its wheel and axle factories of which 1.92 lakh litres is self-generated by its STPs. “We take only 10,000 litres of water from the BWSSB. When the Water Softening Plant is set up, we will be able to fully meet our water demand and will not have to use any water from the water supply board,” he added. The water generated by the STP is being sent to the Kendriya Vidyalaya within its premises to be used for flushing toilets, he added. “We started the initiative on September 5. If it works out well, we will expand it in other spheres,” the GM said.