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Progress was made on Tuesday with the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP) as the South Western Railway (SWR) leased 114.472 acres of land for Corridor-4 from Heelalige to Rajanukunte in the city, sources revealed.
The Railways handed over the land to the Rail Infrastructure Development Company-Karnataka Limited (K-RIDE) for the execution of Corridor-4, also known as the Kanaka Line. Additionally, a lease agreement for revised Railway land, reduced from 157.07 acres to 85.707 acres for Corridor-2 (Mallige Line), was signed on the same day, according to sources speaking to PTI.
This land transfer is anticipated to accelerate the pace of the project, which has been progressing slowly. On February 9, the Karnataka government and the KfW Development Bank of Germany inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to finance the BSRP project. The bank will provide a loan of Rs 4,561 crore at an annual interest rate of 4% for 20 years. K-RIDE officials indicated that the loan amount will fund various components of the project, including Corridor-3 Station and viaduct, Corridor-4 station work, Depot-1 solar panel, and security equipment.
This loan aims to address critical infrastructure needs. During the foundation stone laying ceremony of BSRP in Bengaluru in June 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed optimism that "what had not happened in the past 40 years would be completed in the next 40 months." Presently, Karnataka Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil has set a new deadline of December 2027 for the projects completion. |
