Bangalore Metro makes its mark; hope and celebrations galore

Bangalore, Oct 20: With the glitzy Bangalore Metro finally seeing the light of day after repeated delays, the suave train service has made its inaugural ride. The dream ride was flagged off by Union Minister Kamal Nath and Karnataka CM Sadananda Gowda. Also in attendance was high profile figures from politics and other technocrats.

Present at the inaugural function were Veerappa Moily, Arun Jaitley, Anath Kumar, Suresh Kumar, Sobha Karandalaje and others.

Speaking at the gala function, Union Minister for Railways, Dinesh Trivedi declared that Diwali had come early in Bangalore. He called it an "early Diwali gift". Showering praise on the marvel, the Bangalore Metro, Trivedi said this was what Bangalore needed as a world class city.

Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley also highlighted the Bangalore Metro's welcome addition to the metroscape. He called Bangalore, the "Garden City of Technological Minds" and said that the metro will help in easing the traffic congestion. He extended his heartful thanks to all those who toiled to bring the Metro into a reality.

CM Sadananada Gowda, apart from praising the great work carried out to bring the Metro into existence, remembered the efforts made by former CM BS Yeddyurappa and said that it was his dream to complete the project and the dreams have born fruit in his tenure as CM.

Former Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily called the Namma Metro a world class project and also utilized the opportunity to hail Japan's contribution in the project. He also inaugurated the Indira Gandhi station on the occasion.

Minister of State (Railways) KH Muniappa inaugurated the Byappanahalli Metro station.

The other international presence was that of Japan ambassador, Akitaka Saiki who addressed the gathering in Kannada. Minister Kamal Nath presented a cheque of Rs 1 crore to the representative of the Red Cross Society to the members of Tsunami Japan.

The contribution of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) towards the Bangalore Metro project is immense. The Japanese govt had sanctioned 64 billion towards the Metro project. The phase 1 of the Metro project is expected to be completed by Dec 1, 2013. An increased budget of Rs 265 crore has been approved by JICA for the project.

OneIndia News