Prelim List of Stations on Bangalore’s Silk Board – KR Puram Line Released

Last week, Bangalore’s Development Minister K. J. George held a review meeting with Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd.’s Managing Director to discuss the status of city’s under construction and new metro lines. One of the new lines discussed was the upcoming Silk Board – KR Puram line (Phase 2A) which will run elevated along the eastern half of the Outer Ring Road with a track length of roughly 18 kms.

K.J. George’s office tweeted out some images from the meeting which included a map of the line’s alignment along with the stations proposed. The tweet has since then been deleted (wonder why?), but thanks to web caching services, the map has been retrieved.

view large – Source: K.J. George

Stations are proposed at Silk Board Junction, HSR Layout (Teacher’s Colony), Agara Lake, Agara Junction, Ibbalur Junction, Devarabisanahalli, RMZ Infotech/Ecospace, New Horizon College, Kadubeesanahalli, Manjunatha Nagar, Marathahalli Junction, Ashwath Nagar, Chinnappanahalli, Infosys, Mahadevpura, B Narayanapura & KR Puram. Out of these, the Marathahalli Junction station is expected to be designed keeping in mind the proposed Marathahalli – Hosakerehalli line in Phase 3.

I must note that this is merely a preliminary list of stations. While the line’s DPR will identify the final list, a far more accurate picture and count of stations will appear once the BMRCL invites tenders for the line’s construction which I estimate would happen no sooner than 2018 or even 2019.

From my previous post on this line, here’s what the line’s alignment (in Brown) looks like on an embedded map. You can choose to zoom in and out.

Current Status – October 2016

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the line is under preparation and the BMRCL recently awarded two survey & investigative contracts for which bids were invited in June. When ready, the data captured from these exercises will be put together in the DPR and presented to the Karnataka Government’s cabinet for its approval with an estimate cost of building the line.

DGPS, Topographic, Land & Property Survey
Contract: BMRCL/ 2016/ DGPS, Topographic, Land & Property Survey/ KR Puram – CSB /05
Awarded to: Unicorn Surveys

Geotechnical Investigation
Contract: BMRCL/2016/Geo Technical Investigation/K.R.Puram-CSB/06
Awarded to: Geo Quest Incorp

On the financial side of things, the line will be funded through what the BMRCL calls an “innovative funding model” and as per a recent report in the Bangalore Mirror, many corporate leaders agreed to volunteer and contribute up to Rs 2000 crore to the project. As per the ORR Companies Association’s president:

Two senior members of the ORRCA governance team attended the meeting where the PPP model for the exclusive metro line to ORR was discussed. The industry has committed to fund the project only because the government has assured that it will be fast-tracked. Also, to keep it fast-paced, a committee will be formed comprising industry representatives and officials, whereonce in a fortnight, the work will be reviewed. Once the project kicks-off, depending on the model, we may have developers and investors also pitching in funds and this line can be made operational on a Build Operate Transfer [BOT] basis.

The modalities of funding the line are still being worked out and this will be a time consuming exercise for a project as large as this. For something that was just announced earlier this year, I’d say things are moving along nicely with the stakeholders taking active interest to push it through.

For more updates, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG