BENGALURU: Work on the third stretch of Phase-II of Namma Metro is now set to commence following the awarding of the contract to private firm Simplex Infrastructure Limited. This Reach-3 extension runs to 3.03km from Hessarghatta Cross to BIEC.
Even as trial runs are on in the underground section of the North-South Corridor to complete Metro’s Phase-I, work on the Mysore Road and Kanakapura Road section of Phase-II are progressing.
“A total of 106 acres out of 250 acres required for Phase-II have been acquired. A total compensation of `1,360 crore has been paid so far,” Channappa Goudar, Chief Land Acquisitions Officer, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) said.
For the Reach-3 extension, around `30 crore has been paid as land compensation, Goudar said. It will have three Metro stations, Manjunathanagar, BIEC and Jindal.
Phase-II, estimated to cost `26,405 crore, will connect the lines covered under Phase-I with the peripheral areas of the city. It will have 61 stations of which 12 are underground stations. The deadline for this phase is 2020.
For Reach-2 extension (Mysore Road to Kengeri) and Reach-4 (Yelachenahalli to Anjanapura Township up to Nice Road Crossing), all compensation for acquired properties has been paid. “Work is proceeding rapidly on these two stretches,” said an official.
Goudar said that for Reach-I extension, the 15.5-km stretch between Baiyappanahalli and Whitefield, land acquisition was almost complete. For Reach-5, the 18.5 km stretch between Silk Board and Bommasandra, a sum of `208 crore was paid towards acquiring 52 properties. For Reach-6 (Gottigere-Nagawara), land acquisition has just been completed.