Preliminary work on Bengaluru's suburban rail link begins

BENGALURU: The city's ambitious suburban rail work has finally commenced. Barricades have sprung up in places like Hebbal. This section is part of the 25-km Byappanahalli-Yeshwantpur-Chikkabanavara (Mallige) corridor.
"On Saturday, we started barricading from the Hebbal side towards Banaswadi. Soil-testing work will commence next week. We will put barricades along both the road and railway sides before commencing the work since it is mandatory safety requirement," said an official of K-RIDE, a JV of ministry of railways and the state government which is executing the project.
Preliminary civil work includes survey, geo-technical investigation, utility identification, and test-piling.
Officials said they have identified Hebbal-Banaswadi as a priority section on this corridor. There are six railway level crossings (LCs 140 to 144A) in 5km which will be replaced by rail under bridges (RUBs) in one year.
"This is crucial work but now it is easier to replace LCs with RUBs using precast reinforced cement concrete (RCC) box girders," the official explained.
The civil work tender for Mallige line was invited in November 2021 and opened in March 2022. However, K-RIDE issued a LoA (letter of acceptance) to Larsen & Toubro only on August 26 for a cost of Rs 859.9 crore. The Mallige corridor will have stations in Byappanahalli, Kasturinagar, Sevanagar, Banaswadi, Nagawara, Kanakanagar, Hebbal, Lottegollahalli, Yeshwantpur, Jalahalli, Shettihalli, Myadarahalli, and Chikkabanavara.
K-RIDE officials said they will soon float civil work tender for the Heelalige-Yelahanka- Rajanukunte (Kanaka) line. While the civil work for Mallige started first, officials said Kanaka will be operational before it.