Bengaluru: The East-West corridor of the Metro Rail could soon become fully operational with Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS), S K Mitttal and his team beginning to test its underground stretch of 4.8 km, connecting Mysuru Road and Byappanahalli, for safety on Tuesday.
Once the clearance certificate is issued for the commercial operation of UG -2, people will be able to travel on this stretch between Cricket Stadium and Magadi Road.
But they may have to put up with inconvenience for a few days as the Metro operations from MG Road and Magadi Road stations will be hit while the inspection is underway, possibly until Thursday.
“We have tried to cause as little inconvenience as we can to the commuters. We have just barred the services for a short time on both the stretches that are open in the East-West corridor,” said a Metro official.
On opening the underground line, he said, “The date of inauguration has not been fixed yet, as after the inspection, the CMRS could make some recommendations to the BMRCL, which will have to comply with them before finally opening it for the people.
However, if he finds nothing wrong, the line could become functional commercially in a few days, " he explained. As a result of the inspection Metro trains were running from Trinity Circle and not MG Road towards Byappanahalli on Tuesday and at a frequency of 25 minutes between 8 am and 10 am.
The trains were also running on a single line between Trinity and Indiranagar stations. There will be more disruption on Wednesday on Reach 2 between 4pm and 6 pm.
The underground section of the East-West corridor has five stations, Cubbon Park, Vidhana Soudha, Sir M Visvesvaraya (near Central College), Kempegowda Intersection (at Majestic) and City Railway. The work on the tunneling began in June 2011. Initially the section was scheduled to open to the public by December 2015, but missed several deadlines.
Phase 1 of the Metro is expected to be fully functional by December 2016 and could cost Rs13, 805 crore to build, overshooting its budget by Rs 2000 crore. The Metro is currently operating on five small stretches , Reach 1 (MG Road to Byappanahalli, 6.7km), Reach 3 (Sampige Road to Yeshwanthpur, 5.1km), Reach 3a (Yeshwanthpur to Peenya Industry, 4.8km), Reach 3b (Peenya Industry to Nagasandra, 2.5 km) and Reach 2(Magadi Road to Mysore Road, 6.4 km).
S.K. Mittal told DC, “We have inspected underground stretch for the entire day on Tuesday. We would continue the inspection on Wednesday. Let the inspection get over then we will pass our remarks. "
