M A I N   N E W S

Metro finally rolls out in Bangalore
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service

Bangalore, October 20
India’s tech hub Bangalore today became the third Indian city after Kolkata and Delhi to have a Metro rail service when three stainless steel coaches of the Bangalore Metro packed with politicians, officials and media persons snaked out from the downtown M G Road Station this morning and reached Baiyappannahalli in the eastern suburb - a distance of about seven km - in 12 minutes.

Bangalore being the hub of the IT industry, the coaches have Wi-Fi connectivity so that computer geeks can turn on their gizmos as they travel by the train.

With a remote button, Union Minister for Urban Development Kamal Nath flagged off the first ride at the decked up M G Road station with the invitees spread across the three coaches.

Union Minister for Railways Dinesh Trivedi, Central ministers from Karnataka, including Minister of State for Railways K H Muniyappa, M Veerappa Moily, Mallikarjuna Kharge, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, BJP leader Arun Jaitley and Japanese ambassador Akitaka Saiki, were among the dignitaries present on the occasion.

Conceived as an alternative transport to the expanding city in the early eighties as a mass rapid transit system, the “Namma Metro” (our Metro) is slated to provide relief to the city’s eight million residents who are sick of traffic snarls, pot-holed roads and inadequate public transport system.

“The Reach-1 of the first phase from M G Road to Baiyappanhalli will cater to commuters living in the densely populated eastern suburb”, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) managing director N Sivasailam said.

The stoppages between the two points are (starting from M G Road), Trinity Circle, Halasuru, Indira Nagar and S V Road.

The 42.3-km double line electrified track in the first phase will wind through the city, with 18.1km on east-west corridor and 24.2km on north-south corridor, including 8.8km underground track in the city centre.

When the remaining 35.6-km route under construction is completed by 2014, Metro will become the most sought after commuting mode in the city, Sivasailam hoped.

While the civil works for the project started in 2007 after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone in June 2006, the Reach-1 was executed in March 2011, 24 months behind schedule.

“We have invested about Rs 4,000 crore on the project so far. For various factors, some beyond our control, the total project cost has been revised to Rs 11,609 crore from the estimated Rs 8,158 crore, an increase of Rs 3,451 crore”, disclosed Sivasailam.

Being built on the public-private partnership model, with the state and union government holding 15 per cent equity each, the project has 25 per cent debt component from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

Initially, the BMRCL will operate five trains in each direction at a frequency of 10 to 15 minutes to carry about 1,000 commuters per trip from 6am to 10pm daily with fares ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 15.

Once the service picks up momentum and more people starting to use the Metro, the number of coaches may be doubled. Sivasailam said they were expecting about 25,000 persons to use the Metro daily in Reach-1.