Metro’s new designs on stations

Metro’s new designs on stations
BY R. JAYAPRAKASH
BENGALURU







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Putting to rest specu lation that Namma Metro’s stations will be less than ordinary and follow in the tradition of “glorified glasshouse” BIA, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited is set to give the IT city not one but a dozen aesthetic — although not futuristic — landmarks. The governnment body, criticised for downgrading the designs, shared with Deccan Chronicle the new blueprints for the 12 stations including the ones on MG Road, which will dot the Namma Metro line, the first time any publication has had access to the designs.

The corporation claims it has bettered the earlier designs in more ways than one — more passenger amenities and aesthetics but well within the BMRC’s budget.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, BMRCL Managing Director N Sivasailam said, “The MG Road station will cost Rs 45 crore, Trinity Station would come up at a cost of Rs 36 crore and all other stations will be in the price range of Rs 32 to Rs 35 crore.” “There is no compromise on the spending, but the essence would be to make it more passenger-friendly. The earlier design didn’t have escalators up till the platform so we had to go for a design change. Also in the earlier designs the roofs were enveloping the whole station and it was heavy. The new roof designs keeps the station open. This will also save us a lot of steel,” he added.

The managing director also claimed that the new stations will be user friendly for people with disabilities. The new designs on Reach One between MG Road and Baiyappanahalli are designed by lead consortium RITES who had proposed the earlier designs. “The reason behind the changes is to make these stations more functional and yet keep the aesthetics intact. A lot of discussion and work has gone into each of these stations as each station has its own limitations as there are not ideally located. Each station will be unique in design and let me assure you that people will not disappointed. All the stations will have escalators and there will be no compromise on passenger amenities. As in Delhi Metro, US National Fire Protection Act will be followed in toto for Namma Metro,” Sivasailam said.

The BMRC chief said the earlier designs were good but they had to work on transforming it to a real station. So it was important to redo it from different perspectives. “All stations will have glass-steel façade, fountains, lawns, ATMs and automated ticketing counters apart from coffee shops, book shops and souvenir shops. We will have unpaid areas with centralised air-conditioning accessible to all, so that people can actually see how it all works and at the same time have a breathtaking view of the city,” Sivasailam said.