Namma Metro Airport Line: First Metro Pier Comes Up Inside Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport

On Saturday afternoon (3 September), Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) erected the first metro pier within the premises of Kempegowda International Airport.

It is a significant breakthrough for the final stretch of the Phase 2B line of Namma Metro.

The 15-kilometre line from Yelahanka to the airport terminal station will have 67 piers.

An airport-link section of Namma Metro Phase 2B, divided into three packages, runs from Bengaluru city to Kempegowda International Airport (KIAL) in Devanahalli.

Most of the route will be elevated with 17 stations, and only 900 metres will be built underground, most of it inside the airport terminal.

Officials have confirmed that the casting of the first pier, which has an 8-metre height and a 1.6-metre diameter, was finished in three hours.

Deputy chief engineer of the BMRCL Vinod Sasalatti said, "it took us four months since we began barricading the portion of the airport to ready the pillars.

"We had to transplant nearly 200 trees that dotted the line and shift a water utility line and electrical poles to facilitate the work. We had to get permission from Bangalore International Airport Limited at every stage as it passes via their campus," he said, as per Times Now report.

"BIAL will construct the two stations inside the terminal," said Sasalatti, adding, "package 3 is on track to meet the March 2025 Metro Phase-2 deadline."