Panel recommends CMH Road for Metro

S PRAVEEN DHANESHKAR

In a move that is likely to delay the metro rail project and see litigation rule the day, the three expert committee headed by Justice K Shivashankar has in its report submitted to the Governme mended the CMH Road alignment for the metro instead of Old Madras Road (OMR) in Indiranagar.

A source from the experts committee told Vijay Times that they recommended going ahead with decis CMH Road alignment as they analysed that the ridership would be much higher when compared to an alignment OMR.

The committee concluded that an OMR alignment would be too far from residential/commercial establishments of Indiranagar. However, the committee has recommended that the number of stations on CMH reduced from two to one. Besides, the committees s found that it was difficult to acquire Defence land alignment on OMR.

Interestingly, the expert committee recommendations were submitted to the State Government about 2 months back, but the government is still silent on Meanwhile, members of CMH Road Traders and Establishments Association will protest against th alignment on their road by forming a human chain off CMH Road / 100 ft Road junction on Monday and will the Chief Minister soon to plead for a re-think on alignment.

BMRC speak

V Madhu, managing director, Bangalore Metro Corporation, said "We dont see the issue of alignm CMH Road as a hurdle at all. We will begin construction piers on rest of the six kms stretch between Byappanahallii and Cricket Stadium in October." Madhu assured that CMH Road traders and residents need not worry as work on controversial alignments begin only when all issues are resolved.

BMRC will abide by the decision taken by the gover ment. We cannot prevent anybody from fighting for rights. Land acquisition proceedings under article be challenged by affected parties in the court of



PRESENT STATUS OF PROJECT

MoU to be signed by GoK and GoI shortly
BMRC board to be re-constituted within 15 days
Interim consultants for seven kms stretch appointe
Tenders for utility shifting issued
RITES conducting final location survey for balance kms
Additional geo-technical survey under progress

WHY CMH ROAD?

Metro can be aligned on CMH Road itself instead of OMR
Acquiring defence land on OMR a difficult task
Ridership on CMH Road stands a better chance
Reduce number of stations from two to one at CMH / 100ft Road junction
OMR too far off from residential / commercial area commuters