Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to inaugurate the first elevated section of Bengaluru Metro's Pink Line on Friday, November 13, as the headline item in a package of development projects worth over Rs 15,600 crore that he will inaugurate, dedicate to the nation and lay foundation stones for in the Karnataka capital, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement reported by IANS.

Source: IANS

The section being opened runs 7.5 km between Kalena Agrahara and Tavarekere on the Bannerghatta Road corridor and was developed at a cost of around Rs 3,470 crore, according to the PMO statement. Modi is scheduled to flag off the line at around 12:45 p.m. and take a metro ride from Tavarekere to the IIM Bangalore station. With this stretch, Bengaluru's operational metro network moves beyond 100 km to about 103.6 km.

Source: PMO schedule via Railway Supply

Passenger services from Saturday morning

Regular passenger services on the new stretch will begin at 6 a.m. on Saturday, November 14, Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda told a press conference on November 11. The full Pink Line will run about 21.25 km with 18 stations from Kalena Agrahara in the south to Nagawara in the north; its underground portion is still under development, so Friday's opening covers only the elevated first section.

The wider Rs 15,600-crore package spans urban mobility, power transmission, renewable energy, petroleum infrastructure, waste management and railways, the PMO said. It includes the Transmission Scheme for Integration of Renewable Energy Zones (Phase-II) in Koppal-II and Gadag-II, developed at an investment of around Rs 4,450 crore, according to ANI's report of the programme. Earlier on Friday, at around 10:45 a.m., Modi is scheduled to join the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Prashanti Kutiram, the headquarters campus of the S-VYASA yoga university, and he is also scheduled to inaugurate the COSMOS-Mysuru Planetarium during the Karnataka leg of the visit.

Source: ANI via NewKerala

Funding-share debate runs alongside the opening

Karnataka Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar said on Thursday that the state had done a great job ahead of the visit while acknowledging that much more remained to be done. State ministers have separately questioned the Centre's funding share for Bengaluru Metro: minister Ajay Dharam Singh claimed the Centre provided only 16.2 per cent of metro funding, a figure the state government has presented as its own calculation covering Metro Phases 1, 2, 2A, 2B and the estimated Phase 3 cost. The claims are the Karnataka government's; the Centre has not been reported responding to the 16.2 per cent figure in the reports cited here.

Source: ANI via NewKerala

Sources: IANS report of the Prime Minister's Office statement, November 13; ANI report carried by NewKerala, November 12; PMO programme details reported by Railway Supply, November 12.