Bengaluru Metro’s Pink Line will be inaugurated on November 13 as part of a wider package of infrastructure projects worth more than Rs 15,600 crore to be inaugurated, dedicated or launched during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Karnataka, according to a report by Deccan Chronicle.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to flag off the Pink Line at around 12.45 pm and travel by metro from Tavarekere to IIM Bangalore Metro station. The corridor, developed at a cost of around Rs 3,470 crore, connects Kalena Agrahara with Tavarekere and is expected to improve connectivity and ease traffic congestion in Bengaluru.
The programme will also include the flagging off of the Bengaluru-Mangaluru-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express. The train will connect Bengaluru with Coastal Karnataka and Goa, passing through Hassan, Sakleshpur, Mangaluru, Udupi, Murdeshwar, Gokarna and Karwar before reaching Madgaon.
The Bengaluru programme forms part of a broader infrastructure agenda covering urban transport, railways, renewable energy, petroleum infrastructure and waste management. Among the projects to be dedicated to the nation is an underground LPG storage cavern in Mangaluru, described in the report as India’s largest. The facility has been built at a cost of more than Rs 850 crore and has a storage capacity of 80,000 metric tonnes. It includes a 9.4-km pipeline linking New Mangalore Port with the main terminal.
The Devangonthi Marketing Terminal of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited will also be dedicated to the nation. The terminal has been built with an investment of Rs 330 crore and is intended to strengthen petroleum product storage and distribution in Karnataka.
Railway connectivity projects included in the programme are the 45-km Bagalkot-Wandal doubling section, part of the 284-km Gadag-Hotgi doubling project, and the electrification of the 55-km Sakleshpur-Subrahmanya Road ghat section. The doubling work is expected to support passenger and freight movement, including coal transportation to the Kudgi NTPC plant. The electrification project will complete electrification of the Bengaluru-Mangaluru railway route.
Four railway stations — Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Sakleshpur and Subrahmanya Road — will also be inaugurated after redevelopment under the Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
The package includes transmission projects in Koppal, Gadag and Bidar, involving investments of around Rs 4,450 crore and Rs 1,370 crore, respectively, to help transmit renewable power to the national grid. Foundation stones will also be laid for transmission projects integrating renewable energy zones in Davanagere, Chitradurga and Ballari, involving investments of more than Rs 3,450 crore and Rs 1,100 crore.
In Bengaluru, the foundation stone will be laid for a compressed biogas plant at Haralakunte. The GAIL project is planned to process around 300 tonnes of municipal solid waste daily and produce 12.6 tonnes of compressed biogas.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to travel to Mysuru after the Bengaluru programme. The Mysuru leg includes a tree-plantation programme at Bharat Vann and the inauguration of the COSMOS-Mysuru Planetarium on the University of Mysore campus near Chamundi Hills. Bharat Vann is spread across 17.63 acres and is planned as an urban afforestation project using the Miyawaki technique, with more than two lakh native trees. The planetarium, built by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, will have a 15-metre tilted LED dome, exhibition halls, a museum, a lecture hall and a training centre.
