Nays for Metro Rail, ayes for mono rail

Nays for Metro Rail, ayes for mono rail
Residents’ protest against rail project gets shril

VIJAY TIMES NEWS

Even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lays the foundation stone for Bangalore Metro today, opposition to the project continues to haunt the government from all quarters.

At a press meet in the City on Friday, former High Court judge Justice Saldanha and advocate Pramila Nesargi urged the government to go in for monorail project instead of a metro, as it requires less time to implement and is an economically viable alternative. They said the project involves digging up Cubbon Park, Lalbagh and M G Road, which will result in uprooting of trees. "This cannot be tolerated." They also alleged, no satisfactory environmental impact assessment (EIA) was done before the project was conceived by BMRC. "Does Bangalore need a cheap, fast and efficient mass transportation, which can come up in 10 months, or do we need to spend Rs 10,000 crores and wait for 10 years to have a power guzzler that will serve only five percent of the Citys transport requirements?" Saldhana questioned.

Meanwhile, traders on Mahakavi Kuvempu Road (MKK) in Rajajinagar plan to meet Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy against proposed alignment on the MKK Road. This follows protests by business establishments on CMH Road, who opposed the planned path of the train on their road, Anand, president of MKK Road Residents and Traders Association, told Vijay Times, they will meet the CM next week in this regard. "We met him a couple of months back and submitted a memorandum. We were assured the issue would be looked into, but nothing has emerged," he said.

The traders say, aligning the train alongside existing railway tracks at Malleshwaram and Yeshwantpura is a better alternative.

"When a railway station already exists at both the places, why is the government adamant on aligning the metro on MKK Road? Apart from displacing traders and causing losses to the tune of crores of rupees, BMRC itself stands to lose Rs 500 crore by aligning it on MKK Road," Anand said.