The total route of suburban rail system is 161 km

The much-awaited suburban rail project for Bengaluru has been set in motion with the South Western Railways approaching rail infrastructure company RITES Ltd. to prepare a detailed project report (DPR).

This is a step closer towards making the ambitious project a reality after the Central government made a financial allocation for the project in the budget.

“We have approached RITES to prepare the DPR. Generally, it takes nine to 10 months to prepare the DPR, but we are hoping to get it in three to four months,” said Divisional Railway Manager R.S. Saxena on Monday.

Mr. Saxena said the Union government has sanctioned ₹12,000 crore for the construction of elevated/at-grade corridors for augmentation of line capacity for 142 km. The total route of suburban rail system is 161 km — that includes 19 km route between Bengaluru Cantonment–Whitefield, which is under consideration for quadrupling, with the railways having sanctioned work at the cost of ₹492 crore.

However, railway officials refused to fix a deadline for the completion of the project. “As of now, we only have the pre-feasibility study. Let the DPR come first,” Mr. Saxena said, adding that the DPR will elaborate on how to execute the project, and whether it will be in a phased manner. He said that in some stretches, the elevated corridor could touch up to 42 m height.

Asked about the cost-sharing details between the State and Centre, he said the railways is yet to get reply from the Karnataka government about floor-space-index to tap real estate potential at five stations. The railways estimates that real estate potential is expected to offset 20% of the project cost.