Bengaluru: Kavitha B, a resident of Mysore Road has to change two buses every day to reach Trinity Circle to come to work. She has been witnessing the massive metro construction for years now and has been eagerly waiting for it to become functional. For many commuters like Kavitha, things might change for better as BMRCL is planning and working towards getting east-west corridor, that is, Byappanahalli to Mysore Road functional by December end.
The underground tunneling of east-west corridor that consist of stations at Cubbon Park, Vidhana Soudha, M Viveshvaraya (Central College), Kempegowda Bus Stand and City railway stations have been ready for a while now. Currently system checks and minor civil works are going on. By next month trials and signaling work is about to begin.
In the meantime, Commissioner of Railway Safety has approved and given clearance certificate to reach 2 that covers Magadi Road to Mysore Road. It is about to become operational anytime soon now. Vasanth Rao, General Manager, (Finance) BMRCL says, “Some minor civil works are going on. It will take another 10 days or so and then we are ready to open it for public.”
With Reach 2 becoming functional, it is only the underground section in the east-west corridor that stands between connecting Byappanahalli to Mysore Road. To this Vasanth Roa adds, “By next month we will start the trials in the underground section which will take about two months to finish. The signaling work will also be taken up along the trials. Then minutes to minutes travel time of the train will be checked, among other things. So, by December end we will like to throw it open for commercial use.”
The construction for Metro services started in 2006. Phase 1 has only four stretches open for public so far out of the nine stretches. Started at the cost of Rs 5,400 crore in 2006, the cost has tripled and stands at a staggering estimated cost of Rs 13,845 crore. Failure in meeting the deadlines has become a perennial issue.
Four deadlines, issued for December 2012, December 2013, March 2015, December 2015 have all been missed. It will be interesting to see if the authorities will be able to meet mid 2016 deadline and Bangalore will finally witness Phase 1 completely ready for commercial purpose.
