BENGALURU: The South Western Railway Zone is yet to provide 194 acres of land required to build the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project’s (BSRP) 48-km stretch between Rajanakunte and Heelalige (Corridor-4), for which tenders had been called. The delay by the Railways is the reason why the tender was not awarded to the lowest bidder, said multiple sources.
Gaurav Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, Infrastructure Development Department, on Monday, chaired a meeting to take stock of the status of this corridor as well as the 25.57-km Corridor-2 between Baiyapapanahalli and Chikkabanavar, the only stretch of the project where work has commenced.
It has come to light that the Railway Board had on Oct 27 written to the General Manager of SWR asking him to expedite the process of handing over the land to K-RIDE, the nodal agency to implement the project. It pointed out that K-RIDE had already submitted a proposal for 194.07 acres of railway land to the Zonal Railway. “The Letter of Authorisation of contract for Corridor-4 is not being issued by K-RIDE due to unavailability of the required land,” read the letter sent by AF Ahmad, Director, Gati Shakti, Railway Board.
Larson & Toubro Ltd emerged as the lowest bidder. A senior K-RIDE official told TNIE, “Almost 85 per cent of the land for the project should come from the Railways. They are yet to hand it over to us. Of the remaining 15 percent of private land needed, the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board is about to complete the acquisition of half of it and the rest needs to be acquired.”
Another official said there is no point in awarding the contract to a bidder and not giving them the land required to carry out work. “For Corridor-2 where work has commenced now, Railways had handed over land only in January this year,” he pointed out. The 148.17km BSRP project with four corridors has a 2026 deadline.