BENGALURU : The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has reiterated its appeal to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) to facilitate pedestrian connectivity via a foot over bridge for the Hare Krishna Hill temple on Chord Road in Rajaji Nagar. President Ram Nath Kovind is set to launch ISKCON's magnificent Sri Rajadiraja Govinda temple coming up near Doddakallasandra Metro station on June 14.
Naveena Neerada Dasa, Head, Strategic Communications, ISKCON, told TNIE, "The Sri Rajadiraja Govinda Temple, a replica of the famous Tirumala Tirupati temple, will be inaugurated by the President shortly. Our present temple is a major tourist attraction in Bengaluru and it would be the same with the upcoming one near the Doddakallasandra Metro station. Devotees would definitely want to visit both and the big plus for both is they are linked by the Metro network."
A major chunk of devotees at present visit the Chord Road temple by alighting at the Mahalakshmi Layout Metro station. "Due to limited parking facilities to cater to the huge rush, many devotees prefer public transport. However, they need to walk nearly 500 metres on this road which is highly congested. After walking this stretch, devotees need to walk a good distance inside the temple too," Naveena said.
"We request BMRCL again to urgently take steps to build a skywalk here. We have already erected a skywalk through BBMP connecting both sides of the road when we found many falling down and meeting with accidents when crossing from the Guruvaryoor temple side. Our security staffer lost his life when crossing the road," she added.
ISKCON has plans to build a skywalk near Doddakallasandra Metro station too to facilitate connectivity to the temple, Dasa added. It had sent a formal communication in this connection on February 26, 2020 to BMRCL Managing Director. “We will send BMRCL another request shortly,” Dasa said. The Tourism Department of the FKCCI too had urged BMRCL to build the skywalk during a presentation in 2016.