I agree about the cost, but even if they upgrade the route for LHB trains to hit 130kmph, that alone can bring down the travel time from 5 to 3.5-4 hours for the Shatabdi's. And the main beneficiary would be the MAS-JTJ route as that alone accounts for 219km of the 350km route between MAS and SBC and that will also be upgraded as a part of this project.
Connecting the airport by railway is something that everybody here has been demanding for a very long time. Bu the private transport lobby in Karnataka is very,very strong and suburban rail projects in Bangalore are being ignored by the government. This is despite the airport being only a couple...
more...

of kilometres from the YNK-Kolar branch line.
The metro is a rather bad idea. The projected cost for the airport link was 25000 Cr Rs. This is way more than the projected high speed rail and unlike the high speed rail, this will not benefit any other towns. And not to mention, constructing an elevated metro through the most densely populated regions of the poorly planned city is not really desirable.