PM, CM urged to fast-track Bengaluru Suburban Rail

A citizens' organisation has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to personally intervene to expedite Corridor-1 of the BSRP.

The Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP) was commissioned in 2020 to connect Bengaluru with its suburbs and satellite towns via dedicated rail corridors — similar to suburban rail systems in Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. The project, with an estimated cost of Rs 15,767 crore, was supposed to be completed in December 2025, but now March 2030 is the fresh deadline given by the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) (K-RIDE), a joint venture of the Ministry of Railways and the Karnataka Government.

The Citizens for Citizens (C4C) has said that there were unacceptable delays in the crucial Majestic-Kempegowda International Airport corridor, a project expected to significantly improve the quality of life for nearly two crore people in and around Bengaluru.

In a detailed letter to Modi and Siddaramaiah, the group said the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project, being executed by K-RIDE, has fallen far behind schedule despite its strategic importance to the city's public transport ecosystem and the State Government holding a 51 per cent stake in the implementing agency.

In the letter to Siddaramaiah on January 23, the C4C founder and convener Rajkumar Dugar said, “BSRP being executed by K-RIDE — in which GoK has 51 per cent stake — is running way behind schedule.”

The forum recalled that the project was reviewed by the Prime Minister on December 31, 2025, during which directions were issued for speedy execution.

The citizens' body pointed out that when BSRP was sanctioned in October 2020, Corridor-1 was considered the most vital stretch connecting the city centre to the airport.

The stretch was prioritised for completion within 36 months, which was also endorsed by the State's Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT).

However, Dugar noted that even 63 months after the sanction, on-ground work has commenced on the corridor.

Highlighting the missing deadlines, C4C founder said, “63 months post-sanction, on-ground work is yet to start on Corridor-1, and shockingly, the latest target for completion of C1 is March 2030, i.e., 50 months from now.” This, he said, would mean a total of 113 months for a project originally planned for completion in three years.

He requested a strong budgetary allocation for C1 in the upcoming budget as well as facilitation of Land Acquisition (LA) along with directions for C1 to be completed in next 24 months.

“We firmly believe with your kind intervention, January 2028 for commissioning of C1 is 100 per cent doable,” Dugar said in his letter to Modi and Siddaramaiah.

While laying the foundation stone for the BSRP in June 2022, the Prime Minister had announced that the project, which was delayed for 40 years, would be completed in 40 months. With this announcement, Modi had set a deadline of December 2025.

As the project was delayed, the Karnataka Infrastructure Development Minister, MB Patil, announced in February 2024 that the project would be completed by December 2027.