Bengaluru Suburban Railway makes headway with SWR leasing land to K-RIDE for Corridor-4

Bengaluru: The Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP) made significant headway on Tuesday when South Western Railway leased it 114.472 acres of land for Corridor-4 from Heelalige to Rajanukunte in the city, sources said.

According to sources, the Railways handed over the land to the Rail Infrastructure Development Company-Karnataka Limited (K-RIDE) for Corridor-4, which is called ‘Kanaka Line’.

K-RIDE is executing the project.

“Also, the lease agreement for revised Railway land from 157.07 acres to 85.707 acres for Corridor-2 (Mallige Line) was also signed today,” a source told PTI.

This transfer of land will help speed up the project, which is going on at a snail’s pace, the sources said.

On February 9, the Karnataka government and the KfW Development Bank of Germany entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for funding the BSRP project. The bank will lend Rs 4,561 crore at an annual interest rate of 4 per cent interest for 20 years.

According to the K-RIDE officials, the loan amount will be used for the works of Corridor-3 Station and viaduct, Corridor-4 station work, Depot-1 solar panel and security equipment. This loan is aimed at addressing critical infrastructure needs.

While laying the foundation stone of BSRP in Bengaluru in June 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that 'what had not happened in the past 40 years will be completed in the next 40 months.'

Now, Karnataka Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil has set a new deadline of December 2027 for the completion of the project.