Signs of Metro on City roads

Signs of Metro on City roads
Deccan Herald

Though the final clearance of the Bangalore Metro from the Centre is still awaited, the first signs of work on the project are being seen on various prime roads in the City.....

Though the final clearance of the Bangalore Metro from the Centre is still awaited, the first signs of work on the project are being seen on various prime roads in the City.

Huge ‘Bangalore Metro’ barricades greeted shoppers on MG Road pavement outside Plaza theatre on Wednesday, where an elevated metro station is supposed to come up. However, the trenching work, according to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation officials, is only “preliminary”. The actual work will still take an official nod to begin.

“We are digging at various locations to identify and study the underground utilities. We had conducted a joint inspection with other utility providers including the Bescom and the BWSSB in September last year, but there were 40 locations where the conclusions were not very clear. We are conducting studies in these locations and identifying unknown utilities, so that the work does not get hampered in future,” said Keshav Prakash, Executive Engineer (Civil), BMRC. Three locations on MG Road boulevard have already been covered, and another three locations from Cauvery junction to Trinity Circle will be inspected in the coming days. The trenching operations are likely to continue for the next two months. The entire elevated route under the first phase, from Byapanahalli to Cricket Stadium, that will have 192 columns, will be covered, he added.

However, trenching work on CMH Road and 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, will be taken up following the recommendations of the Justice Shivshankar Bhat committee, that was constituted to look into the grievances of residents and traders of that area.

Meeting put off

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Group of Ministers on Bangalore and Mumbai Metros, scheduled to be held in New Delhi on Wednesday, has been postponed. No new date has been fixed for the next meeting though it is expected to be held next week. The GoM is headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar.