Residents forcing metro rail detour

Residents forcing metro rail detour
New INdian Express

BANGALORE: The much-awaited Bangalore Metro Rail is all set to take a detour from its scheduled route, much before the project is put on the tracks.

Succumbing to pressure from residents’ organisations, the Government is now thinking of changing the alignment.

An expert committee headed by retired judge of Karnataka and Delhi High Court, Justice K Shivashankar Bhat has been constituted to examine the existing and suggested tracks in East-West corridor.

The committee will look into the objections and give its report to the Government.

Sources told this website’s newspaper that the government is considering to change the metro route from CMH Road, Indiranagar Road to Old Madras Road, also via the General Post Office (GPO) and Vidhana Soudha instead of present plans to take it below Cubbon Park.

The changes in alignment will certainly have financial implications on the project, sources said.

However, that will not be much as the Government has not acquired any land for the project so far.

CMH Road residents and organisations have objected to the part of the East-West corridor alignment.

The alignment starts from Byappanahali terminal, passes through Old Madras Road, 100 ft Indiranagar, CMH Road and a few other roads before ending at the Mysore Road terminal.

While the Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Limited (BMRTL) claimed that traffic demand has been the primary concern in selecting the route, CMH Road residents and organisations have objected to it.

The residents have suggested an alternative to take the route directly from Old Madras Road through Adarsha Theatre Road to Swamy Vivekananda Road.

The proposed changes were similar to the alignment in the ELRTS that was dropped by the S M Krishna Government.

However, there is no significant change in the number of properties to be affected by the existing and suggested alignment.

While 52 properties will be affected by the present alignment, only 46 will be affected by the new one.

Meanwhile, BMRTL is still waiting for the final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) to start work.