Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's eight-minute, 50-km high-speed ride from Shanghai city to Pudong International Airport on an electro-magnetic train during his recent visit to China may change the way Bangalore commutes.
A Rs 6,689-crore project for a 37-km high-speed rail link (HSRL) between Bangalore city and Bangalore International Airport, which was considered dead and buried, is back on the drawing board.
The link will cut travel time to airport to around 20 minutes.
Sources in the finance, urban development and infrastructure departments said HSRL, put on the back burner by the erstwhile BJP government that favoured extension of Bangalore Metro, was witnessing renewed interest in the past few weeks.
The feasibility of HSRL is once again before the finance department for consideration. "It is true a file regarding revival of the high-speed rail link to the airport has come to us,'' sources in the department said.
First proposed during the planning stage of Bangalore International Airport in 2001-02, when S M Krishna of Congress was the chief minister, HSRL came to the request for proposal stage following the shortlisting of five consortia to implement the project in 2011. It was shelved in favour of Metro Phase II due to the high cost involved.
HSRL was to be implemented in public-private partnership by the state and central governments with funding from Japan Bank for International Cooperation and private consortia.
The central government was to provide viability gap funding to the tune of Rs 1,047 crore.
The project received a lot of impetus between 2006 and 2011 before it was abandoned.
"A proposal on feasibility of HSRL and the Metro phase II link (from Nagwara) to the new airport has been placed before the finance department. We have recommended extension of the Metro,'' an official in the urban development department said.
Sources said there was pressure from New Delhi as well for reconsideration of HSRL to ensure smooth connectivity to the city.
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