Can Namma Metro meet April deadline for Phase 1?

Civil work, trial run & approvals will take more than 6 months

Namma Metro’s Phase 1 may not meet its newest deadline — April 2017 —notwithstanding the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd’s (BMRCL) confidence.

The BMRCL hopes to finish all the work on the underground section between Sampige Road and KR Market by January and conduct trial runs over the next two months. During that period, it will approach the Commission of Railway Safety (CRS) for approval to launch commercial operations, which it hopes to get by April. The first phase will be fully open in the next few days thereafter. “We are confident of meeting the April 2017 deadline,” Pradeep Singh Kharola, managing director, BMRCL told DH.

But is the BMRCL’s assessment realistic? During a recent visit to the Kempegowda (Majestic) underground station, this reporter found that the BMRCL is racing against time to meet the deadline.

The BMRCL has not yet finished laying tracks on the underground section from Majestic to KR Market. The track-laying on the line where the Kaveri Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) broke through in June 2016 will take at least a week to finish. In contrast, the track-laying on the line bored by the Krishna TBM in September hast not even started.

What the BMRCL has done so far is dismantle the TBM and start the first stage of laying concrete. The track-laying will start in no sooner than two weeks, the official said. In the section between Majestic and Sampige Road, track-laying on both the underground lines (where Godavari and Margarita TBMs broke through) is in the final stage. Once the track-laying gets over on the entire underground section of Namma Metro’s North-South corridor (Green Line), the BMRCL will start work on the electrical-signalling-telecommunication systems, the official added.

Even if the BMRCL completes the trial run by March, the CRS approval will take two months to come, which means the April deadline is likely to be missed.

The BMRCL, however, is planning to push battery-powered locomotives to the elevated corridor that runs from National College to Yelachenahalli as the work related to third rail system (which provides electric power to the rail locomotive) is yet to start. “We have two battery-powered locomotives, which will be put to use for trial run. All the work related to track-laying, stations, signalling and electricals is complete on the elevated corridor,” another BMRCL official said.

The BMRCL announced last week that it will start trial run on the elevated section by November 18, but the line will be not opened to the public anytime soon. “We cannot throw open the elevated line to public until the entire underground Metro network is ready,” Kharola said.