The Prestigious Namma Metro Project

Namma Metro Project History

The city of Bengaluru was a sleepy pensioner's paradise till about 40 years back. It was a very small city without many connections except with the 4 metro cities. With the cluster of Public Sector Undertakings like the HMT, HAL, BEL, BHEL, BEML, ITI, NGEF and others starting their huge establishments in and around the then Bangalore city, the City started expanding rapidly and with the subsequent IT BT industrialization the expansion was rapid and the infrastructure available were far behind the requirements. It became a Metro city and is challenging for the 5th position. Hence the successive Governments from 1982 onwards there were various proposals to ease the problems of traffic. In 1982 there was a proposal for Mass Rapid Transport with a route length 12.20 km at Rs 240 crores. In the next year the Railways' Metropolitan Transit Project prepared a feasibility report for suburban rails service on existing rail lines from Rajajinagar to Jayanagar and Hudson circle to KR Puram covering about 24 km. After that 5 years nothing much happened and 1988 World Bank aided for a study the report of the same recommended for a commuter rail system with the improvement in road transport. In 1994 the State government introduced the Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Limited (BMRTL). The BMRTL arranged for a study of public private joint system but did not progress. In 2003 the Delhi Metro and RITES prepared a project with 2 double line corridor of East – West and North – South of 33 km. In 2005 the State Government cleared the project of the Metro Rail and the next year the Central Government approved the plan. The final plan will cover a distance of 42.3 km at cost of about Rs 6400 crores when the south - North corridor is extended to Hessaragatta. The project will cover the busy residential and commercial areas. The 1st phase of the regular run is expected by 25 – 9 2011 and the entire stretch of metro by September, 2012.

Route Details

The proposed schedule corridors are Cricket Stadium to Byappanahalli; Swasthik to Yeswanthpur and then to Hessargatta; A stretch of about 6 km of underground section; City Railway Station to Mysore Road; KR Road to RV Road and then to Puttenahalli. For the 1st phase of Cricket Stadium (MG Rd) to Byappanahalli every 4 minutes a train will be running during the peak hours. Both the corridors from Mysore Road to Deepanjali Nagar and Yeswanthpur to Jayanagar will pass through Kempegowda Bus Terminus. The travel time from one corridor to the other will be approximately half an hour. During peak hours the carrying capacity will be 40,000 people per hour in each of the four directions. The capacity of each train is 2068 passengers. The 1st phase will have an underground stretch will be 6.76 km at City Railway station, Vidhana Soudha, Majestic and City Market.

The places covered under the routes of the east – west corridor covering a distance of 18.10 km are Old Madras Road to 100 ft Road junction, to BM Sri circle, to CMH Road, to Anjanappa Circle (Ulsoor), to SV Road, to Trinity Circle, to Mayo Hall, to Bal Bhavan Road to Kabbon Park, to MS Building, to KR Circle, to District Office to, Post Office Road, to majestic, to SBM – KG Road, to Kempe Gowda Bus stand, below railway station, Magadi Road to Leprosy Hospital to Toll Gate (chord Road Junction) to Mysore Road to Nayandahalli (Deepanjali Nagar). Out of this route Mayo Hall to Leprosy hospital will be underground. Balance route will be mostly overhead or on surface level.

The North South Corridor route of 24.20 km is through Yeswanthpur along Tumkur Road to Soap Factory to Modi Hospital Road junction via West of Chord Road to Railway bridge at Malleswaram to Swasthik (Stadium) parallel to Rail Lines to KSRTC Bus Stand along Platform Road, to BM College (via underground Balepet-Nagarthpet-Arcot Srinivasachar street Below Vanivilas Hospital – elevated at BMC) to Vanivilas Circle via KR Road, to Lal Bagh West Gate via RV Road, to RV Road dead end. There will be an interchange facility between the East – West and the North – south Corridors in between City Railway station and the KSRTC Bus Stand, underground. The waiting period for change over will be with less than 10 minutes. The capacity of the underground system when fully commissioned will be of 8 lakhs people per day. Throughout the routes the stations will be of approximately at 5 minutes or about 3 km each. The routes may further be extended from R V Road to Banasankari Bus Stand and Yeswanthpur to Peenya. The rail will be of standard gauge. The electricity will be 750 volts DC. Maximum speed will be 80 kmph. Average sped will be about 35 kmph. There will be 41 stations. From end to end the travel time will be about 35 minute to East West corridor and 45 minutes to North-South corridor.

Benefits of Namma Metro

The road congestion will reduce as about 8 Lakhs of vehicles trip may be reduced as most of the busy residential and commercial places are connected by Metro. Travel time will reduce by about half an hour. Because of dedicated tracks, there will be no traffic signals or jams at intersections unlike the road travel in spite of the underpasses and flyovers. The travel can expected to be comfortable, quick, safe, cutting fuel use, economical with the best feature of pollution free travel. With reduction in number of road vehicles will reduce the parking lot hassles.

The Coach Details

The coaches will be manufactured by the BEML, Bangalore. They will be light weight of Stainless Steel or Aluminum; Air conditioned; Inbuilt automatic protection system (ATPS); automatic, acceleration, coasting, braking, stopping and opening and closing of the doors;3 coaches per train with 1000 passenger capacity; and concealed rotating cameras.

Progress So Far

1st Reach: From M G Road (Chinnaswamy Stadium) to Byappanahalli of 7 km is complete and the service is expected around 25th of September, 2011. There will be 6 stations at M G Road, Trinity Circle, Ulsoor, S V Road, CMH Road, and Byappanahalli.