BENGALURU: All construction work at the Vellara Junction underground Metro station has come to a grinding halt five days ago as the army has ordered the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) not to carry out any work here, according to highly placed Metro sources.
This comes on the heels of months of wrangling over land ownership between the Defence and church authorities here with the former even filing a cheating case at Ashok Nagar police station last month against the Church of South India, the parent body of the All Saints Church, for claiming compensation for the land from BMRCL.
The BMRCL had acquired 7,426 sq mt of land on Hosur Road, said to be belonging to the 150-year-old church, for the Vellara Junction station of the Red Line (Gottigere-Nagawara) of Metro’s Phase-II network. Compensation of nearly Rs 60 crore had been paid by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board to the church authorities.
The New Indian Express visited the spot on Friday night and found no work taking place here. Locals said army men keep patrolling the area during the day and there was no activity taking place behind the barricaded sections for the entire week.
According to a highly placed BMRCL source, “We were asked to stop all work five days ago. Since then, everything has come to a grinding halt. We were in the process of putting up a retaining wall so that the earth does not cave in when we carry out excavation work.”
‘Armed men patrolling entire stretch’
On the work that was already taken up, another official said, “We have demolished Fathima Bakery, Hotel Tom’s Restaurant, a BPCL petrol pump and a couple of buildings at Shoolay Circle for our work. The area had also been barricaded by us. But we now see armed men carrying patrolling in the entire stretch and keeping a watch over us.”
Another source said, “The guide wall work has been stopped by Military K&K sub area command due to legal issues.”Construction firm L&T is carrying out the underground work for the 5.5 km stretch from Vellara Junction to Pottery Town. The five stations to come up here Vellara Junction, M G Road, Shivaji Nagar, Bamboo Bazaar and Pottery Town. Church devotees and citizens have also protested online and offline against acquiring of the land belonging to the church as hundreds of trees will be chopped in the process. BMRCL Managing Director Ajay Seth refused any comment on the issue.