Delayed start for B'lore Metro Rail project

Bangalore, June 23: Bogged down by concerns over of financial feasibility, project viability and gauge selection, the Bangalore Metro Rail Project, proposed for the burgeoning technopolis of the country, will make a ground start tomorrow when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lays the foundation stone for the first phase of the project.

The Rs 6,395 crore mass-transit project envisages a 33-km elevated and underground rail network with 32 stations under the first phase. The proposed gauge is standard gauge, unlike the broad gauge on the Delhi Metro network.

The state-owned Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRTL), executors of the project, has the Delhi metro as its consultant.

Construction work, which was scheduled to start in 2005, was delayed due to change in the coalition government in the state and continuous debate over the feasiblility of the project.

In April 2006, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre had approved the project, which was likely to be fully commissioned by 2011. The project would be taken up in two corridors--East-West and North-South, traversing through the main arterial routes of the city.

According to BMRTCL Managing Director V Madhu, the project had become a necessity for the city in view of the high traffic density, and high levels of pollution, besides traffic snarls.

He indicated that Metro Rail would be able to cover 15 per cent of daily aggregate trips undertaken by Bangalore citizens.

Since 1982, various State governments had been toying with the project to mitigate the chaos on roads.

The first phase, scheduled to be opened in 2009, would run from Yeshwantpur to R V Road, covering a distance of 14.9 km, and Mysore Road, linking Byappanahalli in the East-West corridor, covering a distance of 18.1 km.

Currently the mass rapid transport system had been implemented in Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. The Prime Minister had laid the foundation stone for a similar project in Mumbai early this week and there were plans to start similar projects in Hyderabad and Thane.

In addition to Metro rail, the state was also planning to go in for a monorail system to be taken up by a private sector firm with assistance from the State Government.

UNI