The grand, four-corridor, suburban rail network for Bengaluru, a potential game-changer to solve the city’s perennial mobility issues, is at the crossroads. Six months of on-ground work that followed 26 months of relative inactivity has injected fresh hope into the much-delayed project, even as questions linger about the new government’s ability to take it forward.
The intent is there, as articulated in the 2023-24 Karnataka budget allocating ₹1,000 crore for the project, in addition to the ₹660 crore already released. In effect, this amounts to over half of the State’s 20% share of ₹2,479 crore in the project cost. But the question is: Will this accelerate the pace of a project that has taken well over 34 years since it was first proposed?
Seasoned commuter rail activists and experts note that virtually nothing moved from October 2020 to December 2022. This, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set a 40-month deadline to complete the project. However, preparatory work on tenders has picked up considerably over the last six months, and this could change the project dynamics.
