Rs 6,516-cr projects to ease traffic congestion to Bangalore airport

Rs 6,516-cr projects to ease traffic congestion to Bangalore airport
Jaishankar Jayaramiah
Posted online: Saturday , June 21, 2008 at 2305 hrs IST


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The BJP government in Karnataka has given a green signal to implement two infrastructure projects with investments totalling Rs 6,516 crore. The move will significantly ease traffic congestion in India’s IT hub, Bangalore.

The city will have a Rs 3,716 crore High-Speed Rail Link (HSRL) to the Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) and two elevated corridors costing Rs 2,800 crore. According to government sources, global tender inviting Expression of Interest (EoI) for HSRL would be floated in a fortnight’s time while for elevated corridors open bids will be invited in two months period.

The high-speed rail project, prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) as a consultant for the Infrastructure Development Department (IDD) of the Karnataka government, proposes to transport passengers to the international airport located 37 km away from Bangalore City in 25 minutes. The project is seen as the only remedy to the concerns of accessibility to the international airport.

Currently, it takes around 90 minutes to commute from Central Bangalore to the new airport by road and atleast 150 minutes from Southern parts of the city, where major information technology infrastructure is located. The high-speed rail link is expected to cut down the travel time considerably. The state government has appointed Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation Ltd (KSIIDC) as a nodal agency to execute HSRL project.

Although the project was sanctioned when the state was under president’s rule on December 26, 2007, it did not see light in the absence of popular government.

Now as per instructions from the chief minister BS Yeddyurappa, who reviewed all infrastructure projects pertaining to Bangalore city two days ago, KSIIDC has almost finalized the draft notification to float global tenders for HSRL project,

KSIIDC sources said. Once the draft is approved by the government, the global tenders inviting EoI would be floated in the next fifteen days, sources added. To promote the project, the government has formed a special purpose vehicle called Bangalore Airport Rail Link Ltd (BARLL).

However an official attached to Karnataka Infrastructure Department said, the project cost would escalate to above Rs 4,000 crore as it has been delayed since DMRC submitting its Detailed Project Report (DPR) last year. Now with the government expediting the preliminary works, sources said the project would be awarded to successful bidder to start work in October 2008 and complete by 2011.

Once completed, ten trains would service initially between city and new airport. The trains will be fully air-conditioned with six coaches in each train. Maximum operating speed would be 145 kilometers per hour (Kmph) and commercial speed will be 85 Kmph.

The government, through Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), is also keen on implementing two elevated corridors with private participation under Swiss Challenge method. BBMP sources said the Delhi-based IDEB Projects Ltd had formed a consortium with China-based Shanghai Urban Construction Group, Malaysia-based financial institution Macquire and technical consultancy firm STUP and submitted a proposal to build two elevated corridors in Bangalore.

The main 16-km corridor would connect South and Northern parts of the city while the second 12-km corridor would congest traffic snarls in the eastern part of Bangalore. The North-South corridor was mainly planned in the wake of increasing traffic density in northern part of Bangalore due to new international airport.

Currently the DPR with technical aspects submitted by the private consortium is being studied by the BBMP’s technical advisory committee. The module of the project was reviewed by the chief minister. The BBMP is expected to finalise the DPR with a few modifications and submit to the government in two months period. The global bids for elevated corridors are expected to invite by the BBMP by the first week of September, sources added.

The government plans to complete the project, which would be under PPP-BOT model, in 30 months period once it was awarded to successive bidder. If implemented, the proposed elevated corridors would cover all most all traffic congested areas in the city. The BBMP has found the elevated corridors the only way to provide signal-free movement of traffic between south and north corners of the city.