Bangalore Metro: Men behind the Namma Metro

BANGALORE: "He took all the flak. For all. Somebody needs to be unpopular if a project has to succeed isn't it? He led from the front. He took the decision to go ahead with the demolitions on CMH Road when there was hesitation. He took it all on himself. In the end he has come out of it unscathed," thats what senior BMRCL Official U V Vasanth Rao said of N Sivasailam, BMRCL MD.

While he led from the front, there were so many others who stood by him, who worked day and night to make the metro a reality. For all it has been a scintillating experience to observe and be part of team work that ultimately has given Bangaloreans what they need most --a Metro rail.

TOI speaks to people who made a dream come true.

He took the flak for everyone - N Sivasailam, BMRCL MD

If there was one man that Bangaloreans questioned probably on a daily basis it was N Sivasailam. Naturally, it was 24/7 for this bureaucrat who had to deliver the Metro to the citizens. Managing 5,000 odd engineers, thousands of labourers, fighting PILs on land acquisition, the last four years has been indeed challenging.

It was 14 hours, sometimes 16 hours of work. ''I was the bad guy. There may be social angles but it must make technical sense. I know I was unpopular but my brief was to deliver the train. I cannot take credit alone. My predecessors have done the ground work. I did come in at the execution stage which was critical.'' Like a true team leader, Sivasailam owed the product to his team.

D D Pahuja, Director, Rolling Stock Electrical ( RSE)

Confidence and experience perhaps drove this man throughout the four year journey in BMRCL. As someone who worked for eight years in Delhi Metro and readied the first six lines, Bangalore should have been easy. ''Not really. The roads here are much narrower and the curves are sharper. We had to remodel just about everything-- from cables to sewages across Reach 1. We only knew when we were getting into office. But it was great learning experience. The delay did perturb me a little bit. But there was no giving up."

Sudhir Chandra, Director Projects and Planning

The National High school student who went on to do his IIT in Chennai had one dream -- to bring a Metro to the South. And he did. Chandra is perhaps the key man for virtually everything - signalling, recruitment, international tenders, rolling stock. ''Unlike the Indian Railways where I spent three decades, we had to do everything from scratch here in BMRCL. Four four years now, my wife said I have been married to the Metro. It was 12 to 14 hours and seven days.''

At 68, such was his eye for detail, Chandra would walk the entire via-duct even when the walls were still being constructed. ''I was not scared, for in the Railways, we walked on the bridge with rivers flowing down. I have even climbed the 37 meters water tank in Byappanahalli!''

V Madhu, ex-BMRCL MD and ex-infrastructure secretary:

Land acquisition in Bangalore is perhaps the toughest. That's where Madhu came in. ''I came in when the approval for the Metro was cleared. The challenge in such a huge project is how to begin and when to begin though the paper approval was there.

For instance, when I went for talks to acquire a property on MG road, the mother who had kept that land for her son cursed me and and said I was snatching away her fortune. It was sad for me to hear that mother's woes but I had to do my job. I realised no money can replace the emotions you have for your home. That was painful process. I know many people would have cursed me.''

I am very happy today. We are ready to roll out the train. The BMRCL has proved its capability to build a train. This project required a mix of engineering and humanities. As a bureaucrat it was a great learning experience.

There are agencies waiting to fund the second phase - U A Vasanth Rao, GM, Finance, BMRCL

We never faced a single hurdle in terms of finance. The Centre, the state government and lending agencies were prompt in extending finance every time we made a request. The agencies are already keen to disburse finance for the second phase of the project.
We have gone in for a mix of international and Indian funds and maintained an innovative finance strategy that will help us negate the rise in value of currency in future.

"All teams have stayed up to midnight days-on-end to meet deadlines. We have started days very early and gone on till early morning the next day. Each and every person in BMRCL was aware of the project deadlines and all of them treated it as their baby.''
We had to fit the metro into the city - Pradeep Deogire, Chief Architect, BMRCL

The biggest challenge was to fit the metro into the existing city. We had to build the metro in built-up areas, among existing structures, which meant that design had to keep in view the peculiarities of existing structures. We also had to ensure easy access to buildings neighbouring the new metro structure. It was not easy, but me and my team including Ananth Patil and others successfully integrated the metro into existing structures.

Each station is unique and had to be built according to the space available. There could not have been a standard design and that is why each station is special when you look at the architecture. A mother loves all her children, so I love all my stations. It would be difficilt to choose the best. But the toughest was Trinity station, which had to be fit into a tight, built-up space.