BANGALORE: The excitement surrounding the city’s first metro rail facility surely seems to have settled. Now with Reach 1 operational, the City Express tracks the progress of the rest of the project under construction across the city. The grand Namma Metro project, spread across four corners of the city, is primarily divided into two corridors: the East-West and the North-South. While the East-West corridor covers 17.90 kilometres with 16 stations between Byappanahalli and Mysore Road, the North-South covers 23.87 kilometres with 24 stations from Hesarghatta to Puttenahalli.
Divided into four parts or Reaches, Reach 3 (Yeshwantpur to Swastik), Reach 3a (Yeshwantpur to Peenya Depot), and Reach 3b (Peenya to Hesarghatta cross) are nearing completion and the entire route is expected to be operational by December, 2012. Work on Reach 2 and 4, both of which have portions running underground, is on track.
Reach 3 'On track'
“60 per cent of the work has been completed along the Reach 3 route. We expect to finish this part of the project by December next year,” said P N Nayak, chief engineer (Reach 3) with BMRCL. This route comprise 13 stations between Peenya and Sampige Road. Officials expect more passenger movement along this stretch based on current commuters’ demand for public transport on this 11-km stretch.
Nayak said that work along this route is “on track” except for a few clearances that are awaited. One clearance is from the Ministry of Railways for a 66-metre span crossing over a railway line in Malleswaram. “We should receive the clearance soon. We have already submitted the designs to the Ministry of Railways,” he said.
Reach 2 ‘Will be ready soon’
Commuters hoping to travel from Magadi Road to Mysore Road should be hopeful as sources say that this stretch should be ready by December 2012 or early 2013. 75 per cent of the work relating to the viaducts is more or less complete on this route. “40-45 per cent of construction work relating to Metro stations is also complete. We expect to finish this stretch by December next year,” said D M Ramtekkar, chief engineer (Reach 2) with BMRCL.
Reach 4 'Hopeful of completing on time'
In this route running between K R Market and R V Road, 82 per cent of the work is complete. While 77 per cent of the work is complete at the station in Lalbagh, it is around 60 per cent at the South End circle station and 68 per cent at the Jayanagar station. “Reach 4 is predominantly an underground stretch. We expect to finish most of the work by 2013,” said Yashwant Chavan, public relations officer, BMRCL.
Sources earlier estimated that the underground stretch would take at least a minimum of seven years to be completed. For the project to complete on time, BMRCL is waiting for five clearances from the Ministry of Railways. It includes construction of an underground Metro station at City Railway Station, construction of a passenger walk-way at Byappanahalli metro station, multi-modal passenger integration facility at Yeshwantpur and a 66-metre span of line crossing over a the railway line in Malleswaram.
The shifting of the Ambedkar statue too is a bone of contention between BMRCL and certain Dalit groups. Work at the Vidhana Soudha metro station cannot proceed, unless the statue on the premises is not shifted temporarily.
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