BENGALURU: The 18.1-km corridor between Mysore Road and Baiyappanahalli, including the Majestic Interchange Station, will be thrown open to public by this November and the 24.2-km North-South corridor between Nagasandra and Puttenahalli would begin operations by December, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said here on Monday.
He was addressing the members of trade body Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI).
Kharola said BMRCL is well on its way to completing Phase 1 in time and added that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had set the December deadline last year.
“Everything is proceeding according to plan and if all goes smoothly, Phase-I will be fully functioning by December 2015,” he said.
Kharola said Reach 2 from Magadi Road to Mysore Road will be operational by this June. “We are laying tracks for a length of 4.7 km from Vidhana Soudha to Magadi Road and 3.6 km has been completed.”
He was optimistic that it would be completed between February 20 and 25. After three months of trial on Reach 2 segment, the train would be operational by June, he noted.
Roadblocks to Work
He said the hard land rocks in the underground area between Majestic and Chickpet were making tunnelling work very difficult as machines could not bore through them fast enough.
“Sink holes have happened there and we have attended to them immediately. Chickpet is an old portion of the City. The flooring was made of brick and limestone and there is water seepage too,” he said.
TBM in Trouble
“Of the three Tunnel Boring Machines being used in underground work, one broke down and we need to send a massive cutter 60 feet down the ground to set it right. The cutter is being shipped from Italy this week and will take roughly 25 days to reach here,” he said.
Test and trials have been completed for Reach B between Peenya to Nagasandra and Metro is waiting for certification. “The Commissioner for Rail Safety has to okay it and this will take place anytime after February 15,” Kharola said.
Lifting Train for Trial
On the elevated network between K R Road and Puttenahalli, he said they are toying with the idea of lifting a train up and conducting the trial runs so that the process can be speeded up.
“You are likely to see the trials taking place by September,” he said. Trains would be running two months after that.
To repeated requests for connecting the city to the international airport, he said this could be taken up only in the Third Phase of the Metro project.
Speed of Metro
He billed Namma Metro as “a game changer” in the city’s transportation scene. “Though we run at 80kmph, if we include the various stoppages en route, it will still be 30kmph for the passenger,” he said.
The time taken for the Metro to run between Vidhana Soudha and Majestic would be a just two minutes while that between Srirampura station and Majestic would be 2.5 minutes.