In the slow track: Namma Metro comes under fire from angry Bengalureans

BENGALURU: Public impatience with Metro Rail authorities is growing along a stretch of Bengaluru where construction has been completed but services are yet to start. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, a state government entity tasked with building the crucial urban infrastructure project, has been citing problems with underground tunnelling while letting the grass grow under its feet in places where it can make progress by launching services, according to experts.
“They seem to have kept it pending hoping that the tunnel work is done.But at least the Metro lines that are ready could have been opened to the public,“ said Lokesh Hebbani, who specialises in urban issues at the Indian Institute of Science.

Core work has been completed on stations leading to the northern and western ends of the rail lines, but Namma Metro has been bogged down after machines that bore through sand and rock around the intersection near Majestic collapsed.Two tunnel boring machines started out, but only one is operational now.

Work on the 2.5-kilometre stretch from Peenya, an industrial suburb in north Bengaluru, to Nagasandra, has already been completed.Likewise, construction on the line from Magadi Road to Mysuru Road in west Bengaluru is ready, but no trains run on the route.

“Timely completion of Metro work here would have helped decongest the area. But thanks to the delay, the traffic density has increased,“ said Anand Gowda, a design professional who lives in Vijayanagar.

Namma Metro, conceived as a transportation solution for a city of 8.5 million where traffic gridlocks are common, has become notorious for delays and is often compared unfavourably with Delhi Metro, where the first two phases were completed ahead of schedule. When the-then prime minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the 33-km Bengaluru project in June 2006, it was supposed to be completed by September 2011 at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore. Since then, an extension was approved, taking the length of the network to 42 km at an additional cost of nearly Rs 1,600 crore. However, so far, only 16.7 km of the network is functional, the cost has risen to Rs 14,000 crore and there is no sign that the first phase will be ready this year. A second phase totalling 115 km is also in the works, but construction has not started yet.

“The delay is very sad and unfortunate. They must find ways to expedite work,“ said former chief secretary A Ravindra. “Unless the entire work is complete, Bengaluru's traffic problem cannot be solved,“ he said. Pradeep Singh Kharola, the managing director of Namma Metro, promised to seek safety approvals forthwith for the PeenyaNagasandra stretch. He said trial runs will start on the 6.4-km Mysuru RoadMagadi Road stretch within a fortnight.

These routes should have been opened to public long back, believes Gopal Naik, chairperson of the Centre of Excellence for Urban Development at the Indian Institute of Management in Bengaluru. “Delays have several implications, not only cost overruns. This is a loss to the government and the people,“ Naik said.