Will namma metro reach on time?

Bengaluru: The city has been waiting for the Metro Rail to ease its traffic congestion for years now. Much delay and innumerable unmet deadlines later, the BMRCL has managed to throw open two reaches for public use so far. But work on the other reaches seems to progressing at a snail’s pace. In the interim the cost of the Metro has escalated steeply.

Till March end, Rs 11,000 crore had been spent on it and another two and a half thousand crore will have to be put on the table for carrying out the  work still to be done.

Managing Director of BMRCL, Pradeep Singh Kharola blames the rising cost on land acquisition and the fluctuating rupee. The delays, he says are partly due to the work still to be done on the short underground stretch in the East-West corridor.

But he assures BMRCL will deliver and is working hard on completing Reach 3b and Reach 2 next.

“By November-December, the Peenya – Hesaraghatta line will be thrown open for public  use and around the same time, Reach 2, which extends from Leprosy Hospital to Mysore Road, will also be completed. Trial runs will begin soon after,” he promises.

Once these Reaches are completed the focus will shift to the underground portions of the Metro Rail, mainly from the Chinnaswamy Stadium to the city railway station. Trials are expected to begin on this stretch by the mid-2015 and the entire phase I of the Metro could be ready for use by the end of next year.

If BMRCL officials are to be believed, most stations have almost been built, the excavation work done and the masonary and architectural work is in progress.

At Cubbon Park station, work has been done on the entire length of the base, concourse, roof and platform slabs and all civil work completed on the South-West and North-East entry and exit structures, according to them. Also, 50 per cent of work on the South East entry structure has been completed and 53 per cent of the masonary work on various rooms at the station done. “Work on the auxiliary building and on three entry exit structures is in progress,” says a BMRCL official.

As much as 90 per cent of the South-East entry structure of the Vidhana Soudha station has been built and is receiving architectural finishing touches.  Excavation has been done for the Sir M Visveswaraya station and the roof slab work nearly completed at the Bengaluru city Metro station. Civil work at all the four entry-exit structures has been done as well, the officers claim.