BENGALURU: The ball will be set rolling on the actual work for the Rs 15,767-crore suburban rail project soon, as the nodal agency will call for tenders for one of the corridors worth Rs 900 crore.
A top official told The New Indian Express, “The tender for civil works will be called by the Karnataka Rail Infrastructure Development Enterprises (K-RIDE). We are just about to issue the tender for the Baiyappanahalli-Chikkabanavara line.”
On the status of land acquisition for the line, the official said that preliminary notifications have already been issued for two separate stretches, each running for nearly 10km. “Another notification to acquire land for a stretch of 15km will be issued soon. We do not foresee any problem in acquiring land,” the official added.
On the status of other stretches, the official said that tender for the Heelalige-Baiyappanahalli-Channasandra-Yelahanka-Rajanagunte Line (Fourth Corridor), which runs for 46.24km, will be called in the next two or three months.
Two months ago, the State Government had decided to prioritise these two corridors, and to take up the other two corridors later. The Centre had also given the State permission to go ahead with external borrowing of Rs 7,400 crore in the last week of July.
Suburban areas in Phase-II
Kapil Mohan, Additional Chief Secretary, Infrastructure Development, told TNIE that the government believes that the project should connect suburban areas of the city. “We want to ensure that Bangarpet, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur, Doddaballapur and Ramanagar are covered in the second phase. Only then will the project be truly suburban in nature,” he said.
Mohan further said that Phase-I destinations are apt as it is crucial to decongest the core areas of the city. “For the suburban areas to benefit, the central areas need to be traffic-free first,” he explained.