Metro rail's north station to come up at Jalahalli

Metro rail's north station to come up at Jalahalli

The Hindu

Ministry of Defence agrees to part with 40 hectares for the purpose
Defence Ministry to transfer 0.6 hectares on M.G. Road and Old Madras Road to BMRTL
BMRTL to give back 22 hectares of defence land near the Indiranagar BDA complex
Twenty-five companies participate in the tender process
Project likely to get clearance by July 15
First service on Metro rail likely on October 1, 2008


BANGALORE: Decks have been cleared for setting up of the North station of the proposed Metro rail project behind the Aiyyappa temple near Jalahalli Circle on Tumkur Road.

The Ministry of Defence has agreed to give 40 hectares (100 acres) for the station. It has also agreed to transfer 0.6 hectares (1.5 acres) of its lands on M.G. Road and Old Madras Road to Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Ltd. (BMRTL), which is implementing the project.

The Ministry's gesture marks an important milestone for the project, work on which is expected to start before July-end, according to BMRTL's Executive Director, M.S. Nagendra.

The BMRTL will give back 22 hectares of defence land near the Indiranagar BDA complex, which was acquired earlier. The land is no longer required as the BMRTL has changed the alignment of the East-West track (Mysore Road to Byappanahalli). Now the track will come along C.M.H. Road instead of Old Madras Road.

The Ministry has also agreed to part with pieces of its land forming part of the Field Marshal Cariappa Grounds and the RSI Grounds on M.G. Road, the 515 Army Workshop on Old Madras Road and a part of another defence land in Ulsoor (0.6 hectares in all).

The decision was taken at a meeting on Wednesday in New Delhi between the Defence Secretary, the Managing Director of BMRTL, K.N. Srivastava and the Karnataka Revenue Secretary, S.N. Jamdar, among others.

Mr. Nagendra said the value of the defence property acquired already is about Rs. 100 crores as per the guidance values published by the State Government in April 2004. The value of the lands to be acquired now is also close to this figure. Thus there will be no additional burden on BMRTL.

He said BMRTL had sought 40 hectares of land from the Defence Ministry some time ago after it decided to extend the northern end of the proposed project up to Jalahalli. The length of the extended part of the project is 3.5 km, he said.

Mr. Srivastava said recently that 25 companies, 15 of them international, had participated in the tender. Financial bids will be opened after their technical evaluation.

The project is expected to get all the clearances from the Central Government by July 15. The Project Investment Board (PIB) is expected to clear different aspects of the project on June 15 in Delhi. Then it will go to the Cabinet Sub-committee on Economic Affairs. The first service on Metro rail is likely to run on October 1, 2008 from the Chinnaswamy Stadium to Byappanahalli, according to Mr. Srivastava. The entire project will be completed by 2010.