BENGALURU: The integration of the Cantonment metro station with the railway station is something that has captured the attention of several thousands of daily commuters ever since the new location in Bamboo Bazaar street was announced earlier this year. Over the past few months, in their efforts to persuade the government to stick to the original location, activists have come up with alternative proposals which would not result in any demolition.
With the location of the tunnel below Maangalya apartments being the bone of contention, one of the alternatives suggested by those wanting the original location is the shifting of the tunnel by 100-200 metres in either direction.The rules that are cited by BMRCL state that the mid-tunnel shaft must be located within 762 metres from the end of the metro station. Currently, the shaft would come up beneath the apartment block at a distance of 700 metres.
Other options include doing away with the shaft altogether by relocating the stations to reduce the gap between stations to less than 1.5 kilometres. But it is unclear if this would violate any other rules.
BMRCL officials said it most certainly would create safety related issues as there would be a tunnel which is a little less than 1.5 kilometres without a mid-shaft.
Yet another option proposed by Sanjeev Dyammanavvar, an engineer and one of the supporters of the plan, is a slight change in alignment which would include procuring land owned by the Defence Ministry. This could be used to locate the mid-shaft tunnel.
While all these options have been suggested, the group is only saying that they must be considered by BMRCL before being dismissed. “Till the time that BMRCL holds an open public consultation by including all the citizens concerned, those supporting the location of the station at Cantonment as well as those who stand to lose their homes, I would say that the tactic of releasing information about demolition so late into the project is just a fear-mongering move by BMRCL,” said Srinivas Alavilli of Citizens for Bengaluru, one of the supporters of the integrated station.