Bangalore Metro’s Whitefield Line’s Signaling and Electrification Ready

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Alstom Transport India has announced the completion of signalling & electrification works for Bangalore Metro’s 15.257 km Reach 1A & Reach 1B (Baiyyappanahalli – Whitefield) extension of the Purple Line.

This development now allows Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to begin full-fledged dynamic train testing on this extension which I expect will open in mid-2023.

This milestone’s scope of course excludes the roughly 2.25 km Byappanhalli – Benniganahalli (Tin Factory) – KR Puram section where civil construction work is still underway – see details at the bottom.

Bangalore Metro’s Whitefield extension is the longest extension of Phase 1 lines in the 73.92 km Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project. In September 2022, Texmaco Rail and Engineering in September had completed casting all 24 track turnouts for it.

Route of Reach 1B between Sitharama Palya and Whitefield – view Bangalore Metro Phase 2 info & route map

Back in October, BMRCL had started basic trial runs from Whitefield metro station to Pattandur Agrahara metro station – a distance of 3.5 kms. Since then, they’ve slowly been extending testing to the line’s western portions with a primary goal to check for Schedule of Dimension (SoD) clearances.

Bangalore Metro’s Whitefield Line’s Signaling and Electrification Ready
Start of dynamic train testing – Photo via Alstom India

The line’s 2.25 km Byappanhalli – Benniganahalli (Tin Factory) – KR Puram has gone through several design changes and affected by land acquisition hurdles.

ITD Cementation India today (Friday) was going to complete launching a 65m Open Web Girder (OWG) over the Indian Railways’ lines at Benniganahalli, but that has postponed.

Per a BMRCL official who spoke with Christin Mathew Philip at TOI, “This is due to the delay in installation of large no. of HSFG bolts & tightening them to design torque. Hence, the launching of OWG is postponed by few days“.

A cool drone view of the OWG posted by BMRCL can be viewed here.

As far as Whitefield metro line’s opening goes, I’m still looking at a mid-2023 opening. BMRCL has so far transported only one train-set, by road, to the under construction Kadugodi Depot where progress stands at 72.64% according to BMRCL’s December 2022 newsletter.

The depot has major civil and systems installation work pending which makes me believe BMRCL will start operations between KR Puram – Whitefield only after end-to-end civil and track-work on the entire extension is completed. This will allow them to feed trains trains from Byappanhalli Depot.

Kadugodi Depot – Photo via Subhash Chavan

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– TMRG





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