BENGALURU: With safety inspection for the North-South Corridor completed in May and the entire Phase-I heading for a launch by June second or third week, the entrances at two major stations on the underground corridor of the Southern Line have not been completed yet. It would take at least two months for them to be opened for Metro commuters.
The pedestrian subway entry to Chickpet Metro station and two entries to Krishna Rajendra Market Metro station are still in the construction stage. Three entries in each of these stations are completed and will be opened for passenger traffic when Phase-I gets commissioned this month.
Metro sources said the subway leading from BVK Iyengar Road to Chickpet Metro station (Entrance D) is still being readied. “Two other entries on BVK Iyengar Road on the same side of the station (Entrance A and C) and KR Market entry (Entrance B) are ready for commissioning,” a top official said.
Three of the KR Market Metro station entries are ready for opening, they said. They are: Kalasipalayam market (Entrance A), Bangalore Medical College (Entrance B) and KR Road (Entrance E). The entries from Vani Vilas Hospital and Tipu Fort side, C and D entrances respectively, are not yet complete.
Conceding that work at the entries of the two stations was still on, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said, “KR Market station will take one more month to be completed while the pedestrian subway at Chickpet station will take two months.
However, these will not affect commuters in any way as two entries are sufficient to handle the footfall expected at any Metro station after the full phase is launched.” All Metro stations have been designed bearing in mind the ridership figure expected in the year 2050, Kharola added.
Srinidhi Sampath, a Metro enthusiast from Praja.in, an organisation of citizens interested in urban issues, told Express that a similar situation unfolded when the entire Purple Line was commissioned over a year ago. “One of the entries to City Railway Metro station was shut at the time of commissioning. But it was opened a few months later. It could be the same with these stations.”