When Bangalore truly becomes a metro

When Bangalore truly becomes a metro

Govind D. Belgaumkar

You will be able to glide your way to work when the Metro Rail starts operations

# The metro will transport over 25,000 persons an hour
# Manmohan Singh launched the project on June 24, 2006


BANGALORE: Bangalore will join the league of international cities with mass rapid transport systems about three years from now when the first Metro train is expected to start from Anil Kumble Circle to Byappanahalli.

It will be a novel experience for the Bangalorean. A ride in air-conditioned comfort, with the added assurance of a train every four minutes in either direction, is surely worth the wait. The 33 km of railway track that the trains will run on will snake its way through the city's busiest and most congested areas, tunnelling underground for a quarter of the way, and for the rest rising over the ground to an elevation of 32 feet.

In fact, the Metro rail stations at Byappanahalli, Peenya, Yeshwanthpur, Swastik, R.V. Road and Mysore Road will become transport hubs where people can choose between two or three modes of transport — Metro, mono rail, buses, autorickshaws and taxis. The implementing agency is planning to introduce a common ticket for different services other than autorickshaws and taxis.

It has been a long wait for Bangaloreans for an efficient mode of mass transport. The city's population was around 30 lakh in 1981 and has crossed 75 lakh 25 years later. The metro system will transport over 25,000 persons an hour in a given direction.

Crowded buses, which constitute just one per cent of the total vehicular traffic, carry about 50 per cent of the commuting public. The absence of effective transport system has led to people buying two-wheelers and cars more as a need than as a luxury. Two-wheelers, which account for 74 per cent of the total vehicles, carry 36 per cent of the commuters. Cars account for 15 per cent of the vehicles but they transport only five per cent of the travellers.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh launched the Metro project on June 24, 2006. The actual work commenced on M.G. Road and Byappanahalli on April 15 this year.

Dogged by controversy, the 33-km network with 32 stations began with the demolition of the M.G. Road promenade.

The Rs. 6400-crore Metro rail is likely to bring about some fundamental changes — not all of them necessarily desireable — in the cityscape and the pattern of urbanisation.

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) Managing Director V. Madhu said the project could reverse the urban sprawl by promoting more growth along the Metro corridors. The Government would have to relax the floor area ratio so that more high-rise buildings come up.

The Corporation is already thinking of phase two, with the addition of two more corridors — Silk Board (Madivala) to Hebbal via Cantonment station, and Trinity Circle to Singapore Park via Marathahalli. That will extend over another 33 km. The Government's nod is awaited.