A view of the newly installed board at the RV Road metro station in Bengaluru on Friday, highlighting the interchange between the Yellow and Green lines.
Credit: DH Photo/Pushkar V
Bengaluru: The Yellow Line has received statutory safety clearance, officials said on Friday, paving the way for opening the long-delayed metro corridor for passenger service.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) received the clearance report from Commissioner of Metro Railway Safety (Southern Circle) AM Chowdhary on Thursday.
The report has laid down some "minor" conditions for commencing passenger operations, which the BMRCL is confident of complying within a few days, three officials said.
BMRCL Chief Public Relations Officer B L Yashavanth Chavan said that the agency notified the Urban Development Department (UDD) on Friday, as per protocol, and was awaiting its response.
The UDD is expected to formally write to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs soon.
Credit: DH Photo
Tushar Girinath, Additional Chief Secretary, UDD, confirmed that all statutory clearances were in place. "We'll finalise the opening date once the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) gives a response," he said.
The 19.15-km Yellow Line will connect RV Road to Bommasandra via Silk Board Junction and Electronics City in southern Bengaluru. It faced inordinate delays due to the shortage of trains.
Bangalore South MP, L S Tejasvi Surya, said efforts were underway to operationalise the line by August 15 or even earlier.
According to him, the final clearance from the ministry will likely come on August 4 or 5 but there could be a slight delay.
He pointed out that the government of Karnataka was yet to formally approach the ministry about opening the line.
"I will be meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi tomorrow (Saturday) and will be requesting him to officially launch this line as soon as possible. This is a very important metro line and will help reduce traffic congestion," he told DH.
The parliamentarian stressed that the prime minister was committed to opening public infrastructure projects without delays.
"We want him to fly down to Bengaluru for two reasons: open the Yellow Line and expedite approvals for the Red Line," he added.
The 36.59-km Red Line, part of Phase 3A, will link Sarjapur to Hebbal via CBD. It is yet to be approved by the union cabinet.
A senior BMRCL official said all 16 stations along the Yellow Line were expected to be operational at launch, with three driverless trains running at a frequency of about 25 minutes regardless of the peak hour.
Service frequency will improve as more trains arrive. The fourth train, expected around August 10, will undergo mainline testing for about three weeks being inducted into passenger service. Two more trains are expected by September.
Full-scale operations with a peak-hour frequency of five minutes or less will happen by March 2026, when the BMRCL receives all 15 trains.