Metro: Madhu opposes resolution

Metro: Madhu opposes resolution

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: A prolonged discussion on the environmental impact of the Metro on Friday ended with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. opposing the resolution passed and a representative of the NGO that organised the event apologising for the words used in it.

What upset BMRCL Managing Director V. Madhu was that the resolution said people of Bangalore rejected the Metro in its present form. He protested that the resolution was not fair to proceedings, contending that the group attending the meeting was not large enough to say it represented the whole of Bangalore. It was the retired High Court judge M.F. Saldanha who drafted the resolution.

Katyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee of Civic Bangalore, which organised the event, told Mr. Madhu that the resolution was only a draft and that it would be reworded before being sent to the Government.

The resolution served an ultimatum to the Government to hold a larger public meeting within 30 days.Vinay Baindur, trustee of Collaborative for the Advancement of Studies in Urbanism Through Mixed Media (CASUMM), made a presentation on the flipside of the Metro. He said the Government should have set up a Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority before deciding to go for the Metro.

Mr. Saldanha reiterated that the Government should have considered monorail instead of metro rail so the city suffered least environmental damage. Mr. Madhu promised to construct an apartment to rehabilitate people living in slums near Leprosy Hospital on Magadi Road and near Swastik Circle.