YESHWANTPUR:The proposed foot overbridge (FOB) connecting Yeshwantpur Railway Station to Yeshwantpur Metro Station is unlikely to materialise in the near future with the Railways and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) refusing to come to an agreement.
According to the plan, the nearly 100-metre bridge will start from the east end of the Metro station, pass above the taxi and autorickshaw stands outside the railway station and join the existing FOB on platform six. The railway FOB connects all the platforms in the station. According to top officials, Metro wants the Railways to bear half the construction cost but the latter is willing to give nothing more than its consent for the project.
It also looks as though BMRCL is not actively pursuing its own idea due to the shockingly poor patronage at its Yeshwantpur station. The station figures in Reach
3 and 3A, inaugurated on March 1 last year, which connects Peenya Industry to Sampige Road station. BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola told City Express that they would continue to hold talks with Railways on cost sharing. “This FOB will benefit commuters using Metro services as well as those using trains. The project cost needs to be shared,” he said.
According to an official source, the project will cost around Rs 4 crore. Lakshman Singh, Divisional Railway Manager (Works), Bengaluru Division, said, “We have held three rounds of talks since 2012. The original idea was that Railways should give Metro consent as it (FOB) will pass through its property.” Insisting that Railways does not require the FOB, he said, “Metro is a new development in this area. We will not share the project cost as Metro is the one that requires the overbridge.”
Singh added that Railways has already assisted BMRCL by giving it a huge chunk of its land at a highly subsidised rate for the construction of the Metro station in Yeshwantpur.
POOR RESPONSE AT METRO STATION
Yeshwantpur Metro station sees a footfall of nearly 2,000 a day, which is way short of the target, said U A Vasant Rao, Chief Public Relations Officer, BMRCL. “We estimated a passenger traffic of around 40,000 a day but the response has not been along expected lines.” However, passenger traffic is expected to soar when Phase I of Namma Metro is completed, he added.