Bengaluru: The acrimonious exit of Larsen & Toubro from Bengaluru’s suburban rail project has threatened to delay one of the city’s most ambitious mass mobility programmes, yet again.
The Mumbai-based infrastructure major exited the project last week, citing delays in being handed over land for the big-ticket project. L&T terminated its contract to build one of the stretches, and demanded Rs 505 crore.
L&T approached the court, claiming that only 2.1 km of the workfront, or 8.28 percent of the total length under the project it was contracted to execute, was made available to it. It added that the representations by K-RIDE, government body responsible for executing the project, were “false, made with sole intention of inducing and deceiving” the company.
The move has now sparked a blame game between the company and K-RIDE.
According to a person aware of the developments, L&T’s claim that it did not get the land is not completely accurate. “There are multiple factors, including if un-encroached land was handed to L&T by the railways, and why the pace of private land acquisition has been so slow,” the person told ThePrint, requesting anonymity.
K-RIDE, or Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka), is a joint venture of the state government and Ministry of Railways, and is tasked with creating and developing 148.17 km of rail route under the Rs 15,767 crore suburban rail project, aimed at decongesting Bengaluru in the long run.
The lack of sustainable public transportation has forced Bengaluru’s nearly 14 million residents to rely more on private transport, congesting the city further. On last count, Bengaluru had a total of over 1.23 crore vehicles plying its roads, with 7.22 lakh new vehicles added in 2024-25. Coupled with inadequate and crumbling infrastructure, the city has become synonymous with congestion, as well as a template for “urban ruin”.
But the execution challenges aren’t the only factor impeding the progress of the rail project. Policy makers in Bengaluru have kept their energies and resources more focused on big-ticket projects, like the metro and the proposed tunnel road, while others like suburban rail, and even bus fleets, remain stagnant.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in the city to inaugurate the Yellow line of the Metro on 10 August. But the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP) that he announced with much pomp in June 2022—with a deadline of just 40 months—has failed to take off.
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‘Metro given precedence’
As soon as the rail project was announced, several legislators and parliamentarians had rushed to claim credit. Things moved swiftly, at least in terms of its marketing. The project was named “Samparka”, a combination of the first letters of the names of its four stretches, each named after a flower—Sampige (41.4 km), Mallige (25.01 km), Parijaata (35.52 km) and Kanaka (46.24 km).
However, the focus has since pivoted to the metro project. According to a person directly involved in BSRP, the railways-based transportation project is being overlooked for the metro. “It’s like the younger brother is being born before the older brother,” the person remarked, saying how the metro has taken precedence over a cheaper, more sustainable option.
The person also emphasised how other cities, like Mumbai, have focused on the more sustainable option of suburban railways.
Rajkumar Dugar, founder of Citizens For Citizens (C4C), told ThePrint, “The maximum interest being shown by the state government today in any infrastructure project, trying to literally bulldoze its way, is the tunnel road. The second interest is for the metro. Nobody shows interest in suburban rail. The clue is that on paper, the tunnel road costs Rs 1,100 crore per km, the metro about Rs 500 crore on average, and the suburban rail is Rs 100 crore per km.”
The BSRP was sanctioned back in October 2020, with a deadline of three years for the completion of the route from Majestic (Bengaluru’s main bus & train terminal) to the international airport, and further to Devanahalli. At the time, Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation had written to the Karnataka government, asking that K-RIDE focus on other stretches as the metro line must be prioritised. The Department of Urban Land Transport (DULT), in its response to the state government, had said that BSRP should get priority.
“There is a sanction letter from the Union government and DULT. Both say that BSRP corridor-1 should be prioritised. BMRCL had its way, but not a single brick has been laid on that corridor yet after five years. Things are happening completely against the interests of the city,” Dugar said.
Even though all Bengaluru-related projects come under the district in-charge minister, the BSRP has not attracted the attention of its peer projects, like Metro or the tunnel road.
The main reason is that the BSRP is being overseen by the infrastructure development ministry of Karnataka, and not under the city in-charge minister, D.K.Shivakumar. The deputy chief minister has been pushing for vanity projects, like the tunnel road, sky deck, and other big-ticket projects, while BSRP is under M.B. Patil, the industries and infrastructure minister.
Blame game
The South Western Railways (SWR) told ThePrint that all four corridors of the suburban rail project require 326.81 acres of land. An SWR spokesperson said that on many stretches of land that have been handed over, the encroachments have been identified, and almost all of them cleared.
The spokesperson dismissed allegations that the authority handed over land with encroachments to L&T.
The authority told ThePrint that for Corridor-2, K-RIDE demanded 85.707 acre-land, which was handed over in December 2022.
“Out of 25.01 km, 22.482 km (almost 90 percent) of the land is completely free of encroachments. In balance 2.58 km length, 344 encroachments are identified, of which 78 are removed, and others are also in the process of removal. BSRP work is in progress in this stretch,” the SWR spokesperson said.
In another stretch, K-RIDE demanded 115.472 acres, which was handed over in April 2024. “In 46.24 km stretch, only 20 encroachments are identified. Eviction proceedings are already in an advanced stage,” the spokesperson added.
The land requirement has not yet been finalised for the other two stretches, SWR further said. L&T had entered into two agreements with K-RIDE, which were scheduled to be completed in 27 months, according to the agency responsible for implementing the suburban rail network. These included extensions and other agreements.
L&T was contracted to execute about 84 percent of the total corridor length, but K-RIDE said in a statement Saturday that their work was not commensurate so far, which it said “exposes L&T’s failures” in carrying out the work.
”The progress of work as compared to work front availability was not satisfactory due to L&T’s failure in mobilisation of adequate resources, and delay in finalisation of designs,” K-RIDE’s statement read.
It added that multiple letters and reminders had been issued highlighting the company’s “failures” on various fronts, with the direction to remedy them to complete the work at the earliest. The agency also said that the termination of the contract was “illegal”.
ThePrint attempted to reach L&T via email for a comment, but no response was received.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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