JOIN USMetro link from Sampige Road to Majestic only in November
Namma Metro’s north Bengaluru commuters who had hoped to ride the Green Line seamlessly from Nagasandra to Majestic in a couple of months, may have to wait till November.
Even as tunnel boring machine (TBM) Margarita broke through last November followed by Godavari TBM this April, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd has not been able to connect the northern corridor of Namma Metro to the city’s centre.
On an average, about 40,000 commuters use the Nagasandra-Sampige Road Metro line every day. Commuters depend on BMTC feeder buses to reach Majestic Metro station as work on the underground stretch is still under progress. When asked about the status of work on the crucial 800-metre stretch between Sampige Road to Majestic Metro station, a BMRCL source said the corporation is “preparing to lay tracks in one of the tunnels (Margarita) while the dismantling the Godavari TBM in the other tunnel is almost over. BMRCL needs about three months to lay tracks till the Majestic Metro station from the northern side,” he said.
Even if BMRCL completes the work on this stretch anytime in three months, another BMRCL official noted that the corporation cannot start work on systems and signalling on this small stretch till the track work on the southern side (KR Market to Majestic) is over.
At present, BMRCL is dismantling the giant Kaveri TBM (southern side), which is expected to take two months. The corporation will be able to take up signalling work on the entire underground stretch only after completing the track laying work,” he said, without guessing the timeline for the work. Earlier, the Kaveri TBM had made a breakthrough at the Majestic metro station in the second week of June, after boring through a mix of hard rock and soil beneath densely populated areas from KR Market. On the other hand, Krishna TBM is boring through another tunnel, which is expected to breakthrough in two months. Meanwhile, it is almost certain that the corporation will not be able to meet the proposed deadline (November 1) as Krishna TBM is unable to keep pace of the target, the official noted.
Sources also said commercial operations on the entire North-South Corridor connecting Puttenahalli in the south to Nagasandra in north Bengaluru via Majestic might begin from November by using a single line since the completion of another tunnel would be delayed beyond November.