Tejasvi Surya suggests the extension of Bengaluru suburban rail project to Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapur

Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on Saturday reviewed Bengaluru suburban rail project and suggested the Karnataka government to extend the project till Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapur. He also said that he requested railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to approve the expansion plan of Bengaluru’s suburban rail network.

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The Karnataka government has already directed the Rail Infrastructure Development Company of Karnataka (K-RIDE) in June to submit a revised plan of the project. According to the department, the suburban rail project will be extended to Mysuru, Gauribidanur - Hindupur and Kolar areas. Karnataka’s Commerce & Industries, Infrastructure minister MB Patil then said that the long-awaited suburban rail project will be a game changer in dealing with traffic congestion of Bengaluru. With the extensions, the surrounding districts of Bengaluru are likely to see the ease of transport to the capital city.

Surya also reviewed the progress of Corridor-2 between Chikkabanavara and Baiyyappanahalli which is expected to decongest the traffic, once inaugurated.

In June last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the suburban rail system in Bengaluru. He then said that the long-delayed project will be implemented in just around 40 months. According to the previous plan, the total route length of 148.17 km will be built at a cost of Rs. 15,767 crore through a combination of project financing and land monetisation. 57 new stations were in the plan and almost 60% of the places were designed to have multi-modal connectivity.