The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited on May 20 said that the 7.53-km Reach-2 Extension Line between Mysuru Road and Kengeri will open for the public in June. This comes after the BMRCL’s Managing Director and senior IAS officer Rakesh Singh inspected the Kengeri Metro station on Thursday. As announced earlier, the extension of the existing purple line will have six stations — Nayandahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Jnanabharathi, Pattanagere, Kengeri Bus Terminal and Kengeri. BMRCL said that they expect to see 75,000 passengers per day in this section alone. The original deadline for the extension was September 2017.
In a statement, BMRCL said, “The civil and system works are nearing completion for station building and viaduct.” On this section, parking facilities will be provided at Nayandahalli, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Jnanabharathi; and two-level parking will be there at Kengeri Bus Terminal, with bus bay at both sides of the station. Apart from this, all stations have road crossing facilities for the public. Kengeri Bus Terminal Station will be an exception to this as it is located off-road and construction of FOB (foot over bridge) connecting to adjacent BMTC Bus Depot and crossing the road will be provided later, BMRCL added.
This section will also be the first section of BMRCL which will have an AFC (automatic fare collection) system compatible with NCMC (national common mobility card) and QR-enabled payment apps. The maximum fare for travelling from Byappanahalli to Kengeri would be Rs.56, and from Kengeri to Silk Institute (green line), which is the longest stretch, would be Rs 60.
Officials said that the traction and signalling works in this section are nearing completion, and after integration and migration of the signalling system to the new section, train testing will commence.
This announcement comes after the BMRCL recently announced that the metro connection to the Kempegowda International Airport, which was awaiting approval for a long time, will be ready by 2025.