The Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee (BMPC), headed by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, has approved Outer Ring Road (ORR) and Airport metro being taken up by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) under Phase 2A and 2B of the Namma Metro project.
Rakesh Singh, MD, BMRCL told The Hindu that the project management committee will meet by next week followed by release of the work order for construction of metro on ORR (Silk Board to K.R. Puram). The tender for Phase 2B (K.R. Puram to Kempegowda International Airport) was supposed to be opened on May 15, but that is being postponed by a month due to the lockdown.
The total length of the ORR-airport line from Silk Board to KIA that runs via K.R. Puram, Nagawara and Hebbal is 58 km with stations at 30 locations. The Karnataka government had sanctioned the project in January 2019 followed by approval by the Union government on April 28, 2021. The total cost of the project is ₹14,788 crore.
Namma Metro will help lakhs of professionals working in various tech parks and other industries on the ORR. Providing a metro link to the airport has been a long-pending demand of commuters.
The BMRCL has been maintaining that land required for the ORR line has already been acquired, and over 90% of the land has been acquired from K.R. Puram to KIA. The BMRCL has already begun shifting of utilities along the metro alignment.
