BENGALURU: Nearly 200 children came to Madina Maidan on Sunday afternoon as part of a silent protest against BMRCL’s plan to build the Cantonment Metro station at the playground.
They held placards that ‘Don't steal our playground’, ‘save our playground’ and ‘no to Metro rail’. The protest was being held after numerous letters to BMRCL authorities by local residents, calling for change of Cantonment Metro station location, failed to elicit any favourable response.
"We play cricket, hockey and football after school hours till 8 pm. On Sunday we play the whole day. Is this the only location the metro station can be built?," wondered Afraz Khan, a 7th grade student. In fact, he and his friends were eagerly waiting for the new cricket pitch that was proposed to be built on the playground.
Local resident claimed the playground was a ‘life-extender’ to old age walkers and provided healthy future for children. Taking that away based on ‘flimsy reasons’ by BMRCL will deprive us of the only open space, they added.
Namma Metro attempted to assuage the public anger by claiming the distance between the new location and Cantonment railway station will be reduced with use of a travelator/skywalk.
"The shortest distance between two points is a straight line right? How does the skywalk reduce this distance? There will be 4 levels to pass, to go from the underground Cantonment station at Madina playground, to the railway station platform," said Rajkumar, a resident of Vasanthnagar.
He even claimed he had a 1935 vintage map that shows there was a lake at this spot. "There are rock formations all along the sides of the ground. Previously water was there above the rocks. If they begin drilling the boulders, the vibrations are sure to cause cracks and jeopardise homes nearby," Rajkumar added.
"At Majestic and Yeshwanthpur, BMRCL fought with other agencies like SWR, BMTC, over who would bear the cost of skywalks. This could happen again. They talk of cutting costs, but maintaining skywalk and other infrastructure will be expensive," opined Sanjeev Dyamannavar, a transport expert.
"The livelihood of Bamboo Bazaar's wood and cane merchants will be affected. Nobody is thinking of the social impact. Children can't play on the narrow 15 feet road, which has traffic, garbage and water-logging," said Tara Krishnaswamy from Citizens for Bengaluru.
The residents insist on BMRCL retaining the original DPR alignment, which provided them three Metro Stations within 1-km radius - Pottery Town, Cantonment and Shivajinagar. BMRCL MD Pradeep Kharola is expected to meet the residents next week.
