JOIN USDespite tall claims by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) that Namma Metro Green Line between Mantri Square-Sampige Road Station to Peenya (part of Reach 3) and from Peenya to Hesaraghatta Cross would open as planned, the ground reality, though, tells a different tale altogether.
With much of the work on the corridors concerned far from complete, all that
commuters along the route can do is keep twiddling their thumbs eternally, waiting for BMRCL to fulfil its promise.
With legal hurdles putting the proverbial spanner in the works, the City corporation’s process of land acquisition and demolition of properties have hit the deadend with only 81 of 122 private and public properties, marked for acquisition, taken over, and only 77 have been demolished to take up line work. Likewise, according to BMRCL engineers, despite the Metro bridge work along the Indian Railways line in Malleswaram having begun, its completion is expected to run up to July as they have to contend with trains that pass through the station.
Same is the situation of station work along Reach 3 with only 70 per cent of work complete in Yeshwantpur, Soap Factory and Mahalakshmi Layout stations, while it is not the case with Rajajinagar, Kuvempu Road and Srirampuram stations.
With delays dogging BMRCL’s ambitious targets of providing City’s thousands of commuters an alternative and hassle-free mode of travel to their destinations, the people have not much choice but to bear the brunt of the ever-increasing traffic jams for that many months and years.