Bengaluru,  Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Thursday said that he would invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lay the foundation stone of the Bengaluru suburban rail project (BSRP).

Yediyurappa along with Revenue Minister R. Ashoka and other top officials hopped onto the railway by travelling from the Bengaluru cantonment station to Heelalige railway station to review the BSRP work progress.

While travelling in train, Yediyurappa said that this (BSRP) has been the vision of Modi and cutting down the number of vehicles on the road and also reducing commute time for those using the railways.

The long-pending Rs 15,767 crore Bengaluru suburban railway project (BSRP) is aimed at easing traffic congestion.

The project is being executed by Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka) Limited (K-RIDE), a joint venture of the state government and the railway ministry.

The Chief Minister added that if the BSRP is completed swiftly, traffic congestion in Bengaluru will be reduced drastically.

"People will be able to commute easily in the suburban areas and to the Kempegowda International Airport," he said.

After years of struggle by rail user activists who pushed hard for a good suburban rail network, the Union government gave its clearance only in October 2020.

The BSRP involves the development of four corridors and 57 stations, covering a route length of 148.17 kilometres in total. It is expected to be completed within a period of six years at an estimated cost of Rs 15,767 crore.

The project will include four corridors -- KSR Bangalore City to Devanahalli and Bengaluru International Airport (41.40 km), Baiyyapanahalli to Chikkabanavara (25 km), Kengeri to Whitefield (35.52 km) and Heelalige (Chandapura) to Rajankunte (46.24 km).

The cost of the project will be shared by the Karnataka, railway ministry and external funding on a 20:20:60 basis.

In addition to the project, work on doubling the single rail line between Yeshvantpur-Channasandra and Baiyyappanahalli- Hosur had also been sanctioned in 2018-2019.

These projects will also be executed by K-RIDE and the cost of the projects will be shared on 50:50 basis between the Karnataka and railway ministry.

The 22 km-long Yeshvanthpur- Channasandra railway doubling project has an estimated cost of Rs 315 crore with the state's share being Rs 157 crore. The work on the project started in October 2020 and is expected to be completed by December 2023.

The 48 km-long Baiyappanahalli- Hosur railway doubling project, which began in October 2020 and is expected to be completed by December 2023, is being implemented at an estimated cost of Rs 499 crore. In 2020-21, the state government released Rs 65 crore for this project.