HC removes another hurdle to BMRCL

HC removes another hurdle to BMRCL

Odeal D'Souza. Bangalore



The Namma Metro project crossed yet another hurdle on Thursday with the Karnataka high court giving green signal for the acquisition of land near Jayanagar along RV Road for the construction of the South End station.
A division bench of justices VG Sabhahit and Manohar dismissed a petition filed by Zakirunnisa and two others, requesting the court to direct the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to stick to its original alignment for the station.
The petitioners alleged that the alignment had been changed based on the request of owners of a few properties which were sought to be acquired for the station, and contended that the BMRCL had shifted the original alignment by 106 metres.
The court issued notices to BMRCL, which submitted that the alignment was shifted by 60 metres and not 106 metres as contended by the petitioners, and stated that the change was due to technical reasons, and not on the opinion of influential entities as alleged by the petitioners.
It submitted that the action was taken to avoid vehicular congestion at the circle and to bring the station nearer to the commuter catchment area. Besides, to maintain a train headway of three minutes, stations had to be spaced at least four kilometres from each other.
BMRCL's plans to run the metro through RV Road and Nanda Road had run into huge opposition from locals. The alignment proposed to cut through a portion of Lalbagh necessitating the cutting of trees, which angered green activists, leading to protests. A PIL filed in the high court by Hasiru Usiru challenging the felling of trees in Lalbagh for Metro work was also dismissed.