Metro work may throw up more trouble for city

Metro work may throw up more trouble for city

Anil Kumar Sastry
BMRCL is gearing up to undertake work on underground stations and tunnelling work for the project
Tenders for Vidhana Soudha and Cricket Stadium stations to be finalised by the first week of July

Metro officials say they have worked out a detailed plan for the underground work



BANGALORE: Bangaloreans, facing the brunt of Namma Metro’s civil works over ground, are a worried lot. But more is to come. The impending underground construction work is likely to make life worse for the residents.

Metro officials are attempting to soften citizens’ distress by promising meticulous planning so that the truckloads of mud following the excavation will be neatly disposed of. But there are few takers for these promises if the existing quality of Metro workmanship across the city is any indication.

In the coming months, the work is all set to move into higher gear. Users of arterial roads in the central parts of the city — Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Veedhi, Queen’s Road and Cubbon Road — will be put to severe hardship once work on two key underground stations, Vidhana Soudha and Cricket Stadium, commences. Tenders for these will be finalised by the first week of July.

The 8.8-km underground section of Namma Metro includes six stations each measuring approximately 300 metres in length. While twin tunnels will be constructed using tunnel boring machine, stations will come up through cut and cover method. The average depth at which tunnels will be dug is 12 metres. However, one of the two underground stations at Majestic, where the East-West and North-South corridors meet, will be at a depth of 18 metres.

For the work on Vidhana Soudha metro station, temporary roads will be constructed on the lawns of the Vidhana Soudha and High Court. However, for work on the Cricket Stadium station, the entire Minsk Square area will be out of bounds for vehicles. Construction of underground stations at Central College, Majestic, City Railway Station, Chickpet and City Market is not likely to pose serious traffic problems as the work will not be undertaken on major roads.

The Central College underground station will come under Government Arts College grounds; Majestic station under the KSRTC terminal; City Railway station under Railway property; Chickpet station under Government Kannada and Urdu School land and City Market station under the lawns of Minto Eye Hospital.

Excavation of earth and boring tunnels to construct the underground stations are expected to generate enormous quantity of muck, which will be dumped on the outskirts of city.

Having experienced the problems of dust and slush during transportation of smaller quantities from various other projects, Bangaloreans are keeping their fingers crossed over how well the Metro officials keep their word.

Well planned
Top officers of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., (BMRCL) say they have worked out a detailed plan for the underground work and promised to make it bearable for citizens. The muck removed during excavation and tunnel boring will be retained at the project site during the day and will be taken out of the city between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., said BMRCL Chief Engineer (Underground Construction) N.P. Sharma. Some four lakh cubic metres of muck will have to be transported and BMRCL has identified Government landfills at Hennur, M.S. Palya and Anjanapura.

An average of 30 tippers from Majestic and 10 each from other underground stations will transport the mud for about a year. Before these tippers enter public roads, the muck will be washed off the tyres, Mr. Sharma told The Hindu. On the feared inconvenience due to closure of Minsk Square, Mr. Sharma said the BMRCL was working with other agencies to create alternative roads.

Deputy Chief Engineer (Rolling Stock) and Chief PRO Yeshwant Chawan said the tunnel boring machine would do multiple tasks — drilling the tunnel, thrusting out the muck and sealing the inner walls of the tunnel with pre-cast concrete elements. The muck will be slightly slushy since the tunnel boring machine uses water while drilling, he added. One machine can drill an average 20 metres a day on normal soil and 12 metres on rocky soil.