Metro station in Majestic can house 20,000 people at a time

Namma Metro’s Kempegowda station in Majestic, which will provide inter-modal connectivity, has been built on seven-and-a-half acres and can accommodate 20,000 people at any given point in time.

Explaining the station’s features to media persons on Tuesday, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Managing Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director, Pradeep Singh Kharola, said the station had been built at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

It has three levels: The concourse area, the East-West corridor tracks (18 metres underground) and the North-South corridor. One part of the concourse area will be converted into a paid parking lot. The station is as large as six football stadiums, he said.

Committee sought

BMRCL officials have requested Bengaluru Development Minister K J George to form a committee comprising the BMRCL, KSRTC, BMTC, the Department of Urban Land Transport and Railways officials to plan and provide inter-modal connectivity at Kempegowda station.

The minister has asked BMRCL Managing Director Kharola to immediately send a proposal in this regard to the State government for clearance. The request was made when George, Kharola, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation Managing Director Ekroop Caur and a team of officials inspected the underground station work at Cubbon Park (Minsk Square and Chinnaswamy stadium), the Vidhana Soudha and Kempegowda station.

Kharola said three tunnel-boring machines (TBM) from different directions were approaching Kempegowda station. TBM Godavari coming from Sampige Road will see breakthrough at Kempegowda station in another 30-40 days. With this, the northern sector will get connected to the station. TBM Cauvery coming from Chickpet is 130 metres away from Kempegowda station; breakthrough will take 80-90 days; and TBM Krishna will see breakthrough by June-end at Kempegowda station.

Phase 2

George said the 18-km stretch from Dairy Circle to KR Puram would be taken up on a public-private partnership model under Phase-2 of Namma Metro.Work on the new line from Gottigere on Bannerghatta Road to Nagawara will go through Dairy Circle, where a part of it will be underground. Preliminary discussions in this regard have commenced.

The land acquisition notification for the project will be issued by March-end. The final notification for land acquisition for the stretch between Jayanagar to Electronics City is being issued and the compensation process will start by May 2016. Land acquisition work for Whitefield has been notified and payments will start in April 2016.

The minister said phase-2 was expected to be completed by 2020 and connect Mysuru Road to Kanakapura by 2018. Kharola said the work on the Mysuru Road Reach and the Kanakapura Reach had started and three contracts had been awarded.