Somanna promises corridors 2, 4 of suburban rail by 2026

About 72 out of 149 kilometres of the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) will be operational by December 2026, Union Minister of State for Railways V Somanna announced at Vidhana Soudha on Monday. He made the remarks in a joint meeting with State Minister for Industries and Infrastructure MB Patil.

The progress of the project is currently running at a snail’s pace which made Patil chide officials. Deadlines have constantly been extended due to land acquisition denial by the South Western Railways (SWR). “There are four packages (corridors). One of them faced overlapping issues, and in today’s (Monday’s) meeting, we’ve cleared them. Two of these will be completed within December 2026,” Patil told News Trail.

He said that he pushed the authorities to work in unison to avoid delays. Officials from Namma Metro, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) and the SWR have come forth to work together to avoid delays. The BSRP had also faced obstacles in its expansions to neighbouring towns like Tumakuru, Magadi, and Kolar.

Somanna, who is the Tumakuru MP, assured that this would be looked into with the relevant officers. When asked about the challenges of the trains running from the city to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), Somanna admitted that there were a few bottlenecks that needed to be cleared. “I have taken cognizance of the lack of ridership, I will look into it,” he said.

In the meeting, Somanna also hinted that the BSRP can be connected with the Circular Rail system. Costing around Rs 21,000 crore, this 281 kilometre long rail network connects all of Bengaluru’s satellite towns.