TRACKING THE METRO

TRACKING THE METRO
MG Road-Byappanahalli Stretch On Schedule, Work On Other Reaches, Underground, Stations At Various Stages
Aarthi R | TNN

Bangalore: Scorching heat, biting cold, screeching traffic on M G Road and congested stretches of Old Madras Road. Through it all, Bangalore Metro work progresses in full swing within the green barricades fitted with bulbs all along its 43.5-km stretch across the north-south and east-west corridors.
There’s exactly a year to go for the December 2010 deadline, when the first train will zip along the 7-km track from Byappanahalli terminal to the Chinnaswamy cricket stadium. And to meet it, work is going on round-the-clock along this stretch. Here’s a sneak peek into the progress of work along the four corridors of the project, that’s targeting a mid-2012 deadline for completion.
REACH 1 BYAPPANAHALLI TO CRICKET STADIUM Deadline: Dec 2010
The happening Metro track right now. Roughly 7-km long, this stretch begins at the Byappanahalli depot near Old Madras Road and ends at the cricket stadium near Anil Kumble junction. Work at this junction is almost complete and awaits the underground works on the Ambedkar Veedhi stretch. At the other end, the Byappanahalli depot area is completely dug up for the 25 buildings and station coming up. Work is under progress, with concrete structures likely to come up in May-June 2010. With concrete work almost complete, the five huge steel ‘in situ’ girders at the busy Brigade Road junction will also be removed by the month-end, making way for smoother traffic. A similar in situ span at Trinity Circle — extending 50 m — is already done and concreted, and the supports are being removed. Launching of girders now extends from The Oberoi towards Swami Vivekananda Road. Only eight of the total 222 piers along the entire stretch remain to be erected. STATIONS: Still some time to go before structures come up, but with the foundation work for all six stations on this stretch complete, the present status is 35-40% complete.
REACH 2 MAGADI ROAD TO MYSORE ROAD
Deadline:
June 2012 Road widening on this stretch is reaching completion. The demolition of structures and buildings on this reach is almost complete. The casting yards have been set up at Kumbalgodu, Kaglipura and Mylasandra. REACH 3 SWASTIK TO YESHWANTPUR Deadline: June-Sept 2011
Shifting of utilities currently under way from Malleswaram station to Rajajinagar station. However, road-widening work along the entire stretch is almost 95% complete. Ditto with demolition of buildings en route. Piling work for the viaduct and stations is in progress.
REACH 4
K R ROAD TO MAGADI ROAD
Deadline:
June 2012 Piling work reaching completion at the Jayanagar and R V Road stations. With the viaduct design complete, casting for piers and segments is under way.
TOTAL LENGTH
43.5 km INCLUDES North-South corridor:
Hesarghatta Cross to Puttenahalli
East-West corridor:
Byappanahalli terminal to R V Road
NUMBER OF STATIONS: 40 — North-South corridor: 24 — East-West corridor: 16 FACT FILE
TOTAL LENGTH (underground stretch): 8.8 km.
STATIONS UNDERGROUND — East-West corridor: Minsk Square, Vidhana Soudha, Central College, City Railway Station, Majestic — North-South corridor: Majestic, Chickpet, City Market
SOME RELIEF FOR INDIRANAGAR Immediate relief on the problematic Chinmaya Hospital Road should gladden the hearts of Indiranagar residents. With BWSSB’s long-awaited drain work on this road also complete, work by the Karnataka Land Army Corporation (KLAC) is to start. In another 10 days, one-third of the road — from Double Road to 17th Cross — will be asphalted. The other stretch — from 17th Cross till Adarsha Junction — will be taken up in another phase. Simultaneously, preparation work will be taken up to launch girders in January 2010. GOING UNDERGROUND
Tenders for the two underground stretches of Namma Metro are yet to be finalised, and might another week or more, say BMRC sources.
“As on date, we are three months behind actual schedule for this work. But, we will catch up once the tenders are finalised. With so much cost involved, we are being very careful with the underground stretches,’’ BMRC MD Sivasailam told TOI.
Work on all eight underground stations along the north-south and east-west corridors is likely to kick off simultaneously, and with it, traffic diversions will be enforced. However, the main tunnelling work might take another six-eight months to start.
The tenders for both the underground tunnels were floated four to five months ago. However, they had to be re-tendered again in the recent past. The underground stretch of Namma Metro will have two stretches — UG-1 (Swastik to K R Road) and UG-2 (M G Road to Leprosy Hospital on Magadi Road). The overall cost for both was estimated at Rs 3,100 crore. However, the exact cost is yet to be finalised.
The UG-1 stretch will begin from Swastik and pass through Majestic, Chickpet, Victoria-Vani Vilas Hospital and City Market, ending at K R Road. The UG-2 stretch will start from M G Road and end at the Leprosy Hospital on Magadi, passing through Vidhana Soudha, K R Circle, K G Road and Majestic. The stretches will criss-cross at Majestic.