The much-awaited widening of the Varthur-Gunjur corridor along State Highway-35 has hit another roadblock, with authorities now confirming that the project will not be ready before 2027. The Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) has officially stated that the widening and elevated corridor project along State Highway-35 will not be completed before 2027, extending a wait that has already stretched across several years for residents of Varthur, Gunjur, and neighbouring pockets of East Bengaluru.
The core issue holding up the project is land. Of the 198 properties identified for acquisition, several have been cleared and compensated, but acquisition for 19 properties continues to remain stuck, and this small but stubborn set of parcels has become the single biggest bottleneck to full-scale construction. What began as a fairly contained upgrade has also grown in scope: the slow-moving project, originally intended as a 1.9-km widening initiative, has expanded into a larger redevelopment plan involving a short flyover near Varthur Kodi, and future provisions for a double-decker structure and metro alignment. The revised plan includes expanding the existing 30-metre road to 100 metres, constructing a 1.92-km, 60-ft elevated stretch from Varthur Lake Kodi to Vinayaka Theatre, raising a double-deck structure and accommodating railway alignment requirements.
On the ground, however, progress tells a different story. So far, only drainage work and demolition in limited pockets are visible, while full-scale progress remains stalled. This gap between the ambitious blueprint and the visible pace of work has been a recurring source of frustration for residents who use this stretch daily to reach the Outer Ring Road and other parts of the city.
The corridor's troubles aren't limited to the elevated stretch alone. Nearby, work on the Varthur bridge tells a similar story of stop-start execution: one side of the bridge is ready, work on the second bridge — heading towards the Varthur police station — has been abandoned for the past three years, and the resulting bottleneck near Muthasandra has become notorious among daily commuters. The tender for this bridge, estimated to cost about Rs 20 crore, was revived only after Chief Secretary Shalini Rajneesh inspected the Varthur-Gunjur Road in April 2025 and issued instructions to complete all pending projects. Even so, KRDCL is yet to complete the acquisition of properties, even though engineers have started minor civic works along the stretch — underlining just how tightly the larger corridor's fate is tied to resolving these last remaining land parcels.
Community voices have been vocal about the compounding effect of these delays. Clement Jayakumar, a member of the Mahadevapura Task Force, has pointed out that the government must provide a comprehensive approach to the issues faced by people in the Varthur, Gunjur, and Sarjapur areas, noting that even a small bridge project has been pending for two and a half years while the broader East Airport Corridor has also fallen behind schedule. For many residents, the ask has become far more modest than a full elevated corridor: they say that a motorable road, even without widening or elevated lanes, would bring immediate relief.
In the interim, some relief is on the way in the form of basic road maintenance. The Karnataka State Highway Improvement Project (K-SHIP) division is preparing to take up pothole-filling work across 70 km, including stretches that fall under SH-35, with tenders worth Rs 2.6 crore expected to be floated soon for the task. While this won't fix the underlying congestion, it should at least make the existing carriageway more usable while the larger widening and elevated corridor work continues at its slow pace.
For homebuyers evaluating this stretch of East Bengaluru, the delay is a reminder to factor in realistic connectivity timelines rather than announced ones. The Varthur-Gunjur-Whitefield-Sarjapur Road belt remains one of Bengaluru's most sought-after residential corridors thanks to its IT-park proximity, but unless land acquisition issues are resolved quickly, the corridor may remain under construction for at least two more years, delaying the much-awaited traffic relief. Buyers exploring new homes here should ask developers and brokers for the latest ground status on this project before finalising a decision, particularly if daily commute time to ORR or Whitefield is a priority.
