Bengaluru suburban rail project hits dead end as L&T walks out | Bengaluru News
Bengaluru: With just three months left on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 40-month promise regarding the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project, the city’s long-awaited transport lifeline has come to a grinding halt. The reason: a major contractual fallout between Rail Infrastructure Development Company-Karnataka (K-Ride), the implementing agency, and construction giant Larsen & Toubro (L&T). L&T, which was awarded two key corridors — Benniganahalli-Chikkabanavara (Corridor-2) and Heelalige-Rajanukunte (Corridor-4) — has abruptly terminated its contracts, accusing K-Ride of failing to provide the land and work fronts necessary to proceed. It has moved the courts to restrain K-Ride from invoking the bank guarantee deposited. L&T has also demanded Rs 505 crore in dues for completed work and losses arising from what it called “employer breaches”. K-Ride, in turn, has called the termination “unilateral” and “illegal”, alleging it reflected L&T’s lack of commitment to the project.The 148km suburban rail network, billed as a mass mobility solution for Bengaluru’s commuters, was flagged off with much fanfare in June 2022. But 37 months on, only about 22% of the scope has been completed, even though 96% of the scheduled time has passed, according to L&T.The firm claimed that K-Ride failed to hand over both govt and private land, clear encroachments on railway land, and shift utilities blocking the alignment. As a result, expensive machinery and manpower remained idle for months.In a statement, K-Ride countered that the agreements had been extended — on L&T’s request — to Sept 2026 for Corridor-2 and Oct 2026 for Corridor-4. It maintained that the contracts don’t grant L&T the right to terminate them, and called the walkout a clear violation of contractual terms.K-Ride also claimed it had made available 84% of the alignment in Corridor-2 and 17km in Corridor-4. Yet, the agency said, progress on the ground was hampered by L&T’s failure to mobilise resources and delays in finalising designs.Senior K-Ride officials met infrastructure development minister MB Patil over the weekend to discuss the way forward. The agency said it is now working on alternatives to complete the remaining work and minimise further delays.The fallout raises fresh doubts over the delivery of a project that has already seen over two decades of delays.
