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This is an optimistic estimate. The Karnataka government is expecting metro connectivity in the third phase from the city to the Kempegowda International Airport, according to Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee.
The first phase of 42.3 km, for which work began in 2007, is only partially operational. Work on the second phase, which costs Rs 26,000 crore, has barely begun with a timeline of another six years to complete.
After this, work on the third phase is expected to begin, provided Bangalore Metro Corporation Ltd, the agency that is building the metro, finalises a plan, gets it approved and ties up the finances.
The Bengaluru airport, the third busiest in the country, handled 18 million passengers till March this year. So in the next 10 years, when passenger traffic will almost double, expect congestion on roads to increase. It is now a two-hour drive from the city centre to the airport. From Electronics City, where offices of Infosys and Wipro are located, it takes even longer.
“Poor connectivity will lead to exasperation of passengers coming from or going to the airport. If the city is an economic hub for a state or the country, this could have an adverse impact on the business community,” said Deepak Baindur, an expert in urban transport, planning and management at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements.
Most Indian cities have seen delays in metro construction. In July, the Maharashtra government sought help from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to expedite the construction of the Mumbai metro to 120 km from 11.4 km before 2019.
In Delhi, the DMRC has completed around 200 km. Hyderabad hopes to complete the first stretch of 17 km by 2016. Chennai opened its first stretch of 11 km in July.
Bengaluru, to make matters worse, is adding more vehicles on its roads. The city has more traffic violations booked than vehicles – 7.43 million violations booked in 2014 for 5.56 million vehicles. The city can also claim to have more vehicles per person than any other in the country. For every two Bengaluru residents, there are one-and-a-half vehicles – 5.56 million vehicles in March 2015 for a population of 9.5 million, according to the 2011 census.
Since then, migration to Bengaluru has grown thanks to the high-paying jobs the city generates and its cosmopolitan culture.
It is not that the government did not plan rail connectivity to the airport. A high-speed rail network to the city was discussed long before work on building the airport began. It was shelved.
Early this week, former DMRC Chairman E Sreedharan called for a high-speed rail network that will cover the 35 km distance from the city to the airport in around 20 minutes.
A six-lane highway that could dump passengers right into a traffic mess at Nagawara was also shelved. A half-built four-lane tollway is now operational on an existing national highway that connects the airport to Hebbal, an intersection that separates the highway to the city.
It takes 30 minutes to drive 25 km to this point and another hour to drive 10 km to MG Road, the central business district.
A railway station in Devanahalli connects the city and the track passes outside the airport. A 2005 plan to operate suburban trains to Devanahalli is still in the works.
“The railways certainly could address this. A line at Hebbal is underutilised. Instead of going for a metro, if we speed up a commuter rail network, it will be far cheaper than the metro,” said Baindur.
"We know the solution and if it is not addressed, the consequences for the city would be dire. If we are not able to provide public transit services, in effect, we will see more cars and services such as Ola car service."
