Slow metro work prolong commuters’ ordeal on Mysuru Rd

Commuting along Mysuru Road is unlikely to get better any time soon as the barricades put up for the metro work, which reduced the road’s width by half, will stay till March 2019.

Officials, however, said some stretches of the road will be restored earlier.

A major part of constructing the pillars and launching the segments, which needed barricades along the median, have been finished. But work on the last leg of the stretch between the Mylasandra and Kengeri metro stations is yet to pick up pace.

Since work on the metro line began three years ago, commuters have been complaining about traffic jams, broken roads and dust.

The number of black spots may have come down, but the problem persists at several places along the metro line, especially at the stations.

Replying to a query, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited said 80% of the civil work on Mysuru Road to Pattangere (package 1) has been completed and the entire work will be completed by March 2019.

“Regarding Package 2 (Pattanagere station to Challaghatta depot), 60% of the civil work has been completed and (the remaining) work will be finished by November 2019 within the allotted cost,” a reply from the BMRCL public relations office said.

About 50% of the barricades between Mysuru Road and Pattanagere have been removed and the road asphalted.

“Removal of barricades is carried out along with the completion of the viaduct and the median works. Complete removal is with the target dates of respective packages,” BMRCL said.

The project is late at least by a year due to issues in land acquisition and crisis in IL&FS, the construction company working on Package 2. BMRCL has reportedly told the firm to complete the work by December 2018.

The corporation awarded the contract on October 29 for architectural and public health engineering work for stations on the Kengeri metro with a 15-month deadline.

One more year may be needed to lay the tracks and install signaling and telecom systems. So, December 2020 is the most optimistic deadline for the completion of the entire
work.

Information from BMRCL has also indicated a reduction in the estimated completion cost by Rs 74 crore. While the contract for the two packages was awarded for over Rs 650 crore, the estimated completion cost stands at Rs 585 crore.