‘No pain, no gain’ is route to Metro

‘No pain, no gain’ is route to Metro
The Times of India


Metro Rail for Bangalore is finally becoming a reality. Work will begin in a week’s time, April 15 to be precise. The city’s showpiece M G Road will be the first to undergo a sea-change. The elevated boulevard that walkers used for years will disappear. It will be repositioned, but at the road level, after completion of work on this stretch in a year’s time. Four metres of the road’s width, including the dedicated auto lane, will also go. The area will be barricaded for drilling and erection of pillars at a gap of 28 metres each to hold elevated tracks.
Yes, it will put the people to a lot of inconvenience. Traffic will be diverted. The road may be made oneway. Parking will not be allowed. Plus, the sight of the boulevard being pulled down will be heart-rending. But we need to keep cool. The city is going through a period of transition. Unless tough measures are taken, living conditions will worsen. Once the elevated tracks are in place, plans are ready to landscape the entire stretch. A walker/jogger’s path will also come up. M G Road will then regain its grandeur.
Bangalore badly needs an efficient mass rapid transport system. An underground/elevated rail is the answer. Be it Singapore, London, Tokyo or New York, top cities of the world have opted for it. Life looks so much easy in these cities. Take our own Delhi and Kolkata. People there did get irritated when they saw digging, drilling, movement of heavy machines, traffic diversions, changing landscape and what not during the construction of the Metro. Once the work got over, they started singing paeans of the system. Many stopped using their own vehicles or autorickshaws and taxis as they found travel by Metro faster, cleaner, safer, cooler and affordable. No road rage. No traffic jams. No parking problems. In the process, roads too got decongested.
The Rs 6,400-crore Metro project for Bangalore is part-elevated, partunderground. The first phase will cover a 7-km stretch between M G Road and Byappanahalli, which is primarily an elevated route, except in one place where it will go underground. To reduce inconvenience to the public, work will be done at night as is the practice the world over. At least, this is what the officials promise and hopefully, will stick to it.
A Mono Rail, mainly to act as a feeder service to the Metro, is also on the cards. Discussions are on with various consortia. The project is expected to take off by the end of this year. The two rail systems will change the face of Bangalore, speed up traffic movement, reduce vehicles on roads, minimise air and noise pollution levels and help improve living conditions. The Metro stations will be at a convenient walking distance.
Bangalore is on the move again. It had stopped in its tracks for some time, thanks to some politicians who lacked vision. An airport of international standard is coming up fast at Devanahalli. It will be ready to handle both domestic and international flights by this time next year. With the city becoming Greater Bangalore following the merger of seven CMCs and one TMC, the municipal corporation (BBMP) has come up with ambitious projects to upgrade infrastructure. Among them are a few more elevated roads and a tunnel road at busy traffic points. Upgradation of roads is already on across the city and outskirts. And now, the work on the Metro Rail project is about to begin. The Mono Rail project will take shape soon. What is needed at this juncture is patience, perseverance and determination.
To get on to the path of progress, we must have a vision. If the vision has to be put to practice, we must be prepared for changes. If the changes have to be brought about, we must be ready to face some inconvenience. All for a safe, secure and peaceful life. Bangalore has all that a great city should have — good climate, cosmopolitan culture, abundance of talent and hospitable people. Thanks to the strides in information technology, it has become a global city. What it lacks is good infrastructure. It’s time to join hands and fill that vacuum.