Monorail, more Metro lines in Bangalore

The Karnataka government on Monday decided to launch a monorail project and unveiled plans for Metro-II to cover more areas in a bid to further decongest the city's roads.

The first phase of the monorail would cover 31 km, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said after a meeting attended by Chief Secretary S V Ranganath, Infrastructure Development Minister G Janardhana Reddy and Infrastructure Development Secretary V Madhu.

The Monorail would function as feeder service to metro-rail, and per-km cost of building monorail is pegged at Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.4 billion), officials said.

The first phase would run from Hebbal to J P Nagar (Bannerghatta Road) along the western portion of outer ring road.

"We had a detailed discussion on the monorail," Yeddyurappa said. Officials said several companies have evinced interest in the monorail project and the government was expected to make a strong pitch to attract investment for it in the June 3-4 Global Investors' Meet to be held in Bangalore.

Today, the government also decided to extend Metro to Kengeri, Electronic City and Whitefield, and also link Yeshwantpur and Byappanahalli metro stations with the airport. Officials said Metro-II is expected to cost upwards of Rs 14,000 crore (Rs 140 billion).

The areas to be covered include J P Nagar, Banashankari, Kathriguppe, Magadi Road, Tumkur Road, Hebbal and HSR Layout.