Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has reset the Blue Line's full-corridor completion date from December 2027 to March 2028, with the Hebbal–airport section now confirmed for September 2027 and the ORR stretch to Silk Board getting its first trial-run dates.
The 58.19-km Blue Line connecting Central Silk Board to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) via the Outer Ring Road and Hebbal will not be fully operational until March 2028, Greater Bengaluru Development Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said this week — pushing the corridor's previous December 2027 target back by three months. The announcement came during the same round of Namma Metro inspections in which Gowda ordered September trial runs on the Pink Line's underground MG Road–Shivajinagar tunnel.
A three-stage opening, not one big-bang launch
Rather than a single completion date, the minister laid out the Blue Line in three separate chunks. The Central Silk Board–KR Puram stretch along the Outer Ring Road is the furthest along: trial runs between KR Puram and Iblur are expected to begin around October 2026, with the Iblur–Central Silk Board segment following in December 2026. The airport-facing Hebbal–KIA section is now targeted for commissioning by September 2027. The remaining middle piece — KR Puram to Hebbal via Nagawara — is the laggard, expected to be ready only between December 2027 and March 2028, which is what pushes the corridor's full end-to-end opening to that final date.
Why Hebbal keeps slipping
Hebbal is doing double duty as an interchange with the future Orange Line, which means four elevated tracks — two each for the Blue and Orange corridors — have to be built through the same junction, on top of Outer Ring Road clearances still pending in the Kempapura–Hebbal stretch. Central Silk Board and Marathahalli have their own separate holdups: incomplete permissions and site clearance have delayed viaduct work needed for train reversal at Silk Board, and drainage works nearby have slowed progress further. The line's connection to the Byappanahalli depot is also still pending.
What it means for the airport commute
For travellers hoping to swap the Outer Ring Road traffic jam for a train to KIA, the practical takeaway hasn't changed much: there's still no firm date before September 2027 at the earliest, and the full corridor — including transfers through Hebbal — won't be seamless until March 2028. Until then, Nagasandra on the Green Line remains the nearest operational metro station to the airport, roughly 35 km away, with taxis and buses covering the rest of the trip. The revised timeline also lines up with a broader pattern this month: both the Blue Line and the Pink Line have picked up more specific, near-term commitments from BMRCL and the state government even as their full-corridor dates keep moving to the right.
Sources
- Deccan Herald — "Bengaluru's airport metro wait gets longer; full opening only by March 2028" (Aug 24, 2026)
- Swarajya — "Bengaluru Metro Blue Line To Open In Phases, Full Airport Connectivity Now Targeted For March 2028" (Aug 2026)
- MetroRailNews — "Bengaluru Metro Blue Line Opening Pushed to March 2028, Airport Link Faces Further Delay" (Aug 24, 2026)