Impact of metro Station at Shivajinagar

While there has been a lot of talk about the metro station at Cantonment and its location, little attention has been paid to the the station coming up next to Shivajinagar Bus Stand.

This station will take over a playground and portion of a government school. Here is a brief report about the same – REPORT ON METRO IN SHIVAJINAGAR

KSRTC Shifting

The Deccan Herald came out with an article on the shifting of bus depots from Majestic at the end of the month in preparation for the Metro station construction. This means that construction may actually start sometime in the near future, only 8 months late. However, some things in this article do not match up with the information we have received from KSRTC officials:

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will relocate its two depots functioning in the premises of KSRTC bus stand in Majestic area to hand over the land for Metro rail works.

KSRTC has more than two depots, and at least three will be shifted for construction, according to our sources.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) will relocate its two depots functioning in the premises of KSRTC bus stand in Majestic area to hand over the land for Metro rail works.

We were told that the total area given to BMRCL would be 27 acres, and that 7 of those would be kept for the Metro station (This could be an error by DH : 20 acres (for workspace) + 7 acres (for station) = 27 acres)

Of the total 35 acres belonging to KSRTC in Majestic area, 20 acres will be handed over to BMRCL by the end of this month.

The numbers we got were: KSRTC owns all the land, including BMTC space, which is 42 acres (article says 35). Even if you just count the KSRTC side, we were still told that was 32 acres.

This conflicting information is puzzling. Not sure if this reflects changes in plans (possible), misinformation by the people we talked to (also possible), or just bad reporting by the Deccan Herald (very possible).

On a related note, BMRCL decide at its board meeting in New Delhi that they would reinvite tenders for the underground stretch of the metro in order to help lower cost.

Station Info: Deccan Herald

Here are links to the articles the Deccan Herald has been putting out regarding some details on the metro stations. They started with Byappanahalli, followed by SV Road, and now CMH Road. They put out about one per week.

I’ll keep updating this on the Resources page as the articles come out. Photos link to a Gmail photo album of images from the ePaper with maps as they appeared when they were published (they take a few moments to come into focus when you zoom). If you want to link to the Deccan Herald site, there are links (no maps, minus some pictures). If the Deccan link doesn’t work in the future, there is a cached version of just text.

Byappanahalli Full Article/Link/Cached

SV RoadFull Article/Link/Cached

CMH RoadFull Article/Link—(2)/Cached

HalasuruFull Article/Link/Cached

Trinity CircleFull Article/Link/Cached

M G RoadFull Article/Link/Cached

BMRCL’s RTIs

Here is a recent instance of BMRCL’s flaunting of the Right to Information Act. Luckily, the Karnataka Information Commission overruled this claim, and now has to furnish the information requested.

BMRCL told to furnish information
Bangalore, Nov 4,Deccan Herald News Service:

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), which was avoiding giving information under the Right to Information Act, has been directed by the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) to give details sought by an applicant.

Former Mayor P R Ramesh had sought information from the BMRCL regarding the detailed project report, agreement, escalation of prices, mode of payment and utilisation certificate and the tender document. In reply, the BMRCL considered Ramesh as ‘Third party’ and decided not to give information pertaining to ‘commercial confidentiality’ under section 8(1)D of the Act.

After getting a negative response, Ramesh appealed to the KIC against the BMRCL’s decision and sought the Commission’s intervention in getting the desired information. Hearing the case, the Chief Information Commission K K Mishra rejected BMRCL’s argument that the information sought by Ramesh comes under commercial confidentiality. He also directed the BMRCL to give information by Nov 16.

One hopes that this is a good omen, and that BMRCL will be more responsive to properly handling RTI requests in the future, though maybe that’s being too optimistic. More on BMRCL and its RTI problems to come.

The Majestic Heart of “Namma Metro”

The layout for Bangalore’s “Namma Metro” project consists of two tracks, which intersect at one location in the heart of the city, totaling 42.3km in length. The north-south line will start at Hesaragatta Cross and end at Puttenahalli, with a section from Swastik to past City Market underground. The east-west corridor will run from

Underground track
N-S: Swastik – City Market
E-W: Cricket Stadium – City Railway
Costs
Metro station at Majestic: 500 Crores
Land
Combined total BMTC and KSRTC: 42 acres
KSRTC: 32 acres
KSRTC bus stand: 16 acres, 30 guntas
Underground Metro Station: 7 acres
Occupied land for construction: 27 acres

Byappanahalli Terminal to Mysore Road Terminal, going underground from around the Cricket Stadium until just past the City Railway station. The largest station in the Bangalore Metro project will in the KSRTC Bus Stand at the intersection of the north-south and east-west lines. The station will be an L-shaped construction, lying four levels below ground, reaching a depth of 66 feet. The lowest level will be the east-west line, and the total area of the station will be slightly more than 7 acres. The estimated cost for this station is Rs. 500 crores.

The land on which the BMTC and the KSRTC Bus Stands lie is property of KSRTC, which is 42 acres in total. The KSRTC side is 32 acres, and the bus stand alone takes up 16 acres, 30 guntas. For construction of the Metro stand, BMRCL will occupy 27 acres for offices, workspace, materials, which will be handed over to them in three stages by KSRTC. After construction, the BMRCL will retain the 7 acres for the station, and return control of the rest to KSRTC. In exchange, BMRCL will give KSRTC 9.5 acres elsewhere in the city, 7.5 of which will be in Peenya. The land from bus depots 3, 4, and 5 will be handed over during construction, and the depots will shift to elsewhere, including on depot at Shantinagar. Additionally, due to the departure space KSRTC will lose when construction begins, they have decided to convert the front side of the building into a temporary bus stand. Already they have cleared many of the trees in the area, and removed the small garden space in front. KSRTC will then create a large C-shaped bus stand, including minimal commercial space which may accommodate some of the displaced shop owners from the existing bus stand. Already Mangalore buses have shifted to the front on the west side of the building.

Construction was set to begin in March of 2009, but has been postponed to August, then September, then 10^th October, and now nobody knows for sure. There have been a few reasons for the hold up, including decisions on land transfer, and the holiday season which slowed progress. Presently KSRTC is waiting for the Work Order from the BMRCL to commence construction, but does not know when this will be issued.