The Hindu : Karnataka News : Work on Metro project to begin by July-end

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 27, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka

Work on Metro project to begin by July-end

Staff Reporter

Project to get clearances by July 15

BANGALORE: Work on the Bangalore Metro will begin by the end of July, K.N. Srivastava, Managing Director, Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Ltd. (BMRTL), has said.

Addressing the members of the Indian Institute of Public Administration on Thursday, he said 25 companies, 15 of them international, participated in the tender and they will be short-listed in 10 days. Financial bids will be opened thereafter and work awarded to the lowest bidder.

The project will get all clearances from the Union Government by July 15.

It will be approved at the Project Implementation Board meeting in Delhi on June 15 and the proposal sent to the Cabinet subcommittee, he said.

The first service of Metro will start by October 1, 2008. The project will be completed by 2010.

The Metro is expected to carry 40,000 passengers an hour in each direction.

Initially, there will be a service once in four minutes in each direction. Each train will carry 2,068 commuters.

Mr. Srivastava said a comprehensive survey has been commissioned to see how feeder circuits and alternative modes of transport can be integrated with the Metro network.

Other modes of transport such as monorail, trolley buses, commuter service rail or suburban railway can be integrated, he added.

He said BMRTL will secure a loan of Rs. 2,953 crores with the UTI Bank as the lead arranger of finance while the Centre will invest Rs. 1,450 crores and the State Rs. 1,800 crores (which works out to a total of Rs. 6,203 crores).

The State Government has already collected Rs. 700 crores by way of infrastructure cess and it will mobilise an additional Rs. 900 crores by the time the project is ready.

Financial closure has been achieved for the loan, Mr. Srivastava said.

The proposed Metro will have two tracks: an 18.1-km stretch from Mysore Road to Byappanahalli, and an 18.4-km stretch from Yeshwantpur to R.V. Road, both via the Kempegowda bus terminus.

In all, 29.15 km of the tracks will be elevated, 6.7 km will be at surface level and 0.65 km will be an underground stretch.

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