BENGALURU: There’s another ‘Beda’ campaign taking shape in the city against the plan to build a Metro station below a playground in New Bamboo Bazaar.
As the campaign gathers more support on both online and offline forums, it has the makings of another long-drawn campaign, on the lines of the ‘steel flyover beda’ (against the steel flyover) and ‘namma metro Hindi beda’ (against Hindi usage in Namma Metro).
Residents of New Bamboo Bazaar held a meeting here on Thursday to discuss the way ahead. Saif Sahil, member, Bamboo Bazar Residents Welfare Association, said, “We will put up banners saying, ‘Metro Station Beda’ (We do not need the metro station) in the area. We want BMRCL officials to talk to us and clearly tell us their plans. And many locals have no idea about this, so we want to create awareness too, after which we expect them to join us in the protest.”
Urban expert Ashwin Mahesh questioned the BMRCL’s rationale behind its move to reduce the project cost. He said, “It’s a 100-year project, how much cost will you save? How do they account for the cost of additional walking and of denying kids access to a playground? You can save construction cost, but you’ll hugely escalate the cost to pedestrians and to commuters. And those costs will remain high throughout the life of the project.”
Mahesh added that he had measured the ‘walking distance’ between the Cantonment station and the playground as 800 metres.Architect and urban activist Naresh Narasimhan said the proposal warrants a relook and a debate.“Maybe in the long run, building the station in front of the Cantonment station is the smarter thing to do,” he said.
Speaking on whether the entire ground can be avalable for locals after the station is built, he said entry and exit points will have to be given in some part of the area.Narasimhan points out at least a part of the playground will have to be used.
According to Sahil, apart from the already highlighted issues, the station will also make the already narrow roads more congested, increase traffic three-fold around the area and, during construction, pose a risk for schoolchildren.
Residents of other areas too are throwing their weight behind the protest, as lack of connectivity between the suburban rail and Metro affects them too.RWA Whitefield Rising tweeted to BMRCL questioning the rationale of constructing a station ‘a km away’ from Cantonment.