Construction for 2nd Phase Bangalore Metro to Start in 2014

The Karnataka government has cleared the second phase of the Bangalore Metro project covering 72 km at an estimated cost of Rs 27,000 crore ($5.1 billion).

Construction of the second phase will be taken up in 2014 after completing the first phase by 2013 and it will be opened for service from 2017.

The state-run BMRCL commenced a daily service on reach-1 of the first phase on Oct 20, 2011 covering 6.7 km from MG Road in the city centre to Baiyappannahalli in the eastern suburb.

Being built on public-private partnership model, with the state and federal governments holding 15 percent equity each ($250 million), the first phase of the project has 25 percent ($416 million) debt component from JICA.