BENGALURU: The major portion of the 19.5-km Rashtriya Vidyalaya Road-Bommasandra Line (Yellow Line) of Bengaluru Metro will be opened by December this year while a small portion will open in March 2023 due to an accident involving a girder, in October, last year.
After undertaking a review of two Metro lines on Tuesday afternoon, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, Managing Director, Anjum Parwez said that the stretch between Central Silk Board and Bommasandra (nearly 15 km) of this Reach-5 line was in an advanced stage of completion.
“We are planning to commission it by December 2022. However, the stretch between R V Road and Central Silk Board will be in place by March 2023 due to the need to fabricate a girder here.” This runs to 4 km and has the rail-cum-road flyover that will rise to 31m, making it the highest in South India.
A 260-tonne launch girder had slipped on October 24 last year at BTM Layout, bringing work to a halt at the Double Decker flyover at the Jayadeva Interchange station. “We worked on restoring the fallen girder but the design team suggested we do away with it and opt for a new girder. This delayed our work by at least two months. The new girder has been installed and has begun work now and presently all three launch girders are working,” said a senior Metro official.
BMRCL was targeting the launch of the Whitefield-Baiyappanahalli line also by year-end, the MD said. “The Whitefield depot may not be ready by then, but that would not affect the operations,” he said.