Metro stations to sport swanky look

Metro stations to sport swanky look

Govind D. Belgaumkar

Six leading architects prepare the designs for free; RITES provides them technical details

Design for Plaza station provides for retaining the promenade on Mahatma Gandhi Road

Trinity Circle station to be hub of activity

with more space for parking



Sprawling: A sketch of the Trinity Circle station that will have an attractive elevation and elegant interior.

BANGALORE: Being designed by some of the leading architects of the city, the Metro stations on M.G. Road, C.M.H. Road and Old Madras Road will have modern and attractive elevations. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) promises to give them elegant interiors too.

The Plaza theatre station will be unique in that it will have three side entrances — from the Manekshaw Parade Ground, M.G. Road and Church Street. The Trinity Circle station will be functionally bigger with more parking space and shopping areas.

Space constraint has forced the BMRC authorities to shelve the original idea of having shopping areas at the Plaza theatre station.
Free movement

It is being designed to ensure free movement of people with open spaces that would help people disperse easily. Some 30,000 to 40,000 people are expected to use the station a day.

The authorities plan to provide parking space for more than 100 two-wheelers here. However, the Plaza station is not meant for parking cars, according to V. Madhu, Managing Director, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) Limited. As a rule, the BMRC hopes to provide car parking only in major stations or terminals.

“The Trinity Circle station will be a hub of activity with more parking area,” Mr. Madhu said. The cricket stadium station on M.G. Road will be underground.

The design for Plaza station provides for retaining the erstwhile promenade abutting the northern side of Mahatma Gandhi Road. It has been achieved by taking station facilities such as parking and ticketing areas under the bund.

“You will have free walking area on the bund (promenade) from Anil Kumble Circle to Brigade Road Junction, as you used to have earlier,” he said.

The M.G. Road entrance will be exactly where the Plaza theatre is situated now. The Manekshaw Parade Ground and Brigade Road entrances will be parallel to this entrance.

Mr. Madhu told The Hindu that six leading architects had spent months to prepare the designs of the metro stations in Reach 1 — from Cricket Stadium to Byappanahalli. The designs had been finalised for the Ulsoor, CMH Road and Old Madras Road stations besides Plaza and Trinity Circle stations.

The architects had rendered their service free of cost, he said.

As suggested earlier, trains would be moving on either side on double tracks over the viaduct all along. People going in one direction would have to wait for trains at one side of the viaduct and those going in the other direction on the opposite side. Facilities to cross over the viaduct would be in place, Mr. Madhu said.
RITES

The designs by the architects were based on technical details worked out by the RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Services) who have been the BMRC’s consultants for detailed designs for the stations.

RITES has started working on structural designs for the new architectural plans and elevations.

BMRC hopes to float tenders by October when tender documents are expected to be ready.

As far as 24 other stations in the remaining parts of the two corridors (Mysore Road to Cricket Stadium and Tumkur Road 8th Mile to J.P. Nagar) are concerned, the BMRC has received pre-qualification applications from various firms.

The BMRC has begun technical evaluation. The 38-km metro rail network will cost Rs. 6,400 crore.