Metro project will start in March

Metro project will start in March

The Hindu

Work on the NGEF-cricket stadium stretch to be launched first

# Project work to be launched in different parts of the city in June
# Nine global consortiums show interest
# 27 acres of private property to be acquired
# Monorail can carry only 6,000 passengers per hour while Metro can carry 50,000

BANGALORE: The Bangalore Metro Rail project is expected to gather steam in March 2006 with the starting of civic work on the seven-km elevated stretch from NGEF to cricket stadium.

Subject to the Cabinet's final approval, the project work will begin in different parts of the city by June, according to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) Managing Director K.N. Shrivastava.

At a presentation on the Metro Rail project organised here on Monday by the Federation of Jayanagar Residents Welfare Associations here, Mr. Shrivastava said Metro Rail will be expanded to cover the entire city and its outskirts.

Nine global consortiums had "shown interest" in the project, Mr. Shrivastava said and added that one of them will be eventually selected by April.

The State Government, he said, has undertaken a study on traffic and transportation in the city and beyond, including the City Municipal Council (CMC) areas, to understand Bangalore's traffic profile.

The study will submit its report in seven months, he informed.

The first phase of the project, Mr. Shrivastava said, will feature 36 stations, 15 of them with public parking space. Each of these stations will be served by feeder buses and will be accessible with common tickets.

He said a committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Y.N. Yellappa Reddy to monitor the implementation of the environment management plan under the project. But he said projects such as the Metro are exempted from city environment clearance.

In this connection, he said the Metro Rail will not touch Cubbon Park at all.

To a question on monorail as a cheaper alternative, Mr. Shrivastava said monorail can carry only 6,000 to 8,000 passengers per hour while Metro has a capacity to carry 50,000 passengers an hour. The Elevated Light Rail Transit System (ELRTS) can carry 15,000 to 20,000 people per hour. "The monorail cannot meet the traffic demands of a busy city such as Bangalore," he said.

Besides, he said, the cost of monorail was much higher than metro. Monorail will cost about Rs. 150 crores per km while an elevated stretch of Metro rail will cost only about Rs. 100 crores a km. But the underground stretch of the Metro will be more expensive at Rs. 250 a km.

On land acquisition, Mr. Shrivastava said 137 acres of land has been obtained from the Union Government and another 50 acres from the State Government.

Only 27 acres will be acquired from private property. "We are trying to reduce this to the barest minimum," he said.

The project's first phase of 36.5 km will include 18.1 km of the east-west corridor and the 18.4 km of north-south corridor. Of this, 29.15 km will be elevated and 6.7 km will be underground.