Tunnel roads get green light, while metro faces red tape in Bengaluru

Transit Priorities

Last week, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar announced that the tenders for building tunnel roads would be called in 45 days, which is also the time given to the eight consultants to devise an infrastructure plan to decongest traffic in Bengaluru. 

The state government, which is visibly keen to fund cost-intensive car-centric projects, has not shown the same zeal in ensuring faster implementation of two new metro projects: one caught in the bureaucratic red tape and another stuck on the drawing board. 

In the next 45 days, consultants are expected to conduct a traffic survey, take into account site conditions and review ongoing and future metro projects before suggesting either tunnel roads or elevated corridors along 190 km of road. On the contrary, two new metro projects — critical for decongesting the traffic and completing the missing links — are stuck at different levels. 

The metro project consists of a 44-km Phase 3 comprising two corridors (West of ORR from JP Nagar 4th Phase to Kempapura (Hebbal) and Hosahalli to Kadabagere on Magadi Road and a 37-km stretch connecting Hebbal and Sarjapur Road through the city’s core (Phase 3A).

Phase 3

While the state government approved Namma Metro’s Phase 3 in January this year, it has not given the crucial nod for starting crucial works such as land acquisition, shifting of utilities etc. As the project currently awaits the approval of the Centre, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation has not been able to use this time to take up pre-construction activities which generally take a minimum of two to three years for the project to actually take off. 

Officials said they had requested the government to approve pre-construction activities without providing additional grants. “When the third phase was approved, the finance department did not accord concurrence for beginning the preliminary work until the Centre approved the project. Since we had taken up these works for the Outer Ring Road (Phase 2A) line, we have again requested the department to approve these works,” a senior BMRCL official said. 

The project, promised to be ready for operations by 2028, is pending approval from the Centre. Sources said the detailed project report (DPR) went back and forth between the departments and that the project may be approved by the end of this year. 

Phase 3A

While Phase 3 is caught in red tape, the next phase – connecting Sarjapur Road with Hebbal (37 km) – is still on the drawing board as the BMRCL has yet to complete the DPR. Metro authorities had awarded the work of preparing the DPR in July last year with an eight-month deadline. The BMRCL is yet to submit the report to the state government for approval. 

The 37-km line, which passes through Agara, Koramangala and Dairy Circle, will be the fourth corridor to pass through the heart of the city and will connect at least four metro lines at different places. It also comprises an underground stretch. 

A senior BMRCL official said the DPR was almost ready.

“We have revised the DPR based on the feedback received from authorities in the central government. When it is sent for approval, we will have fewer queries and may be approved quickly,” he said. 

Metro enthusiasts want the BMRCL to complete the DPR quickly and ensure the state government’s nod without delay so that the project is approved before the Lok Sabha polls.

“If these formalities are not completed on a war footing, the project will suffer as the new government in the Centre will take its own time to clear files,” people who track the metro project say. They also felt the BMRCL should have a full-time managing director who stays on the job for a longer period of time. 

BMRCL boss Anjum Parwez, who also heads the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, was not available for comment. 

By 2031, the Comprehensive Mobility Plan promised a metro network of 317 km in Bengaluru. So far, only 172 km of metro is either operational or
under construction.