Residents of Mysuru Road and Kanakapura Road will have reason to cheer next year as work on reaches 2 and 4 of Namma Metro’s Phase II will be completed, and operations will begin by 2018-end.
Reach 2 is the extension of Purple Line from Mysuru Road to Kengeri and Reach 4 is the extension of Green Line from Yelachenahalli to Anjanapura Township.
The work on these two reaches will be completed two years before the scheduled completion of the entire Phase II network, Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters on the sidelines of The Huddle, The Hindu ’s thought conclave, on Sunday. He said the entire 42-km network of Phase I would be commissioned by this April-end (a 32-km network of Phase I is operational now), and added that the entire Phase II would be completed by 2020. BMRCL has submitted a proposal to connect the international airport with the metro, Mr. Naidu added. Meanwhile, a press release said the BMRCL is expecting total ridership of 15 lakh passengers a day once the Phase II project is completed. “In 2017-18, the government of India has allocated ₹1,400 crore for this project,” it said.
Namma Metro’s Phase I is slated for completion by April this year and according to officials,
Trials on the underground stretch between Sampige Road and National College (Phase I) will begin by mid-February.
Coaches to be increased
Anticipating an increased rush after the entire stretch of Green Line and Purple Line of Namma Metro becomes operational in April-end, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) has begun the process of doubling the length of the trains from three coaches to six. “Construction of the metro rail system in Bengaluru was a big challenge... the core works of Phase1 are complete. The final finishing works, road restoration and cleaning works are in final stages and the process of testing and trials have started,” a press release said.
It said that bids for the doubling of the train length by procuring new coaches had been called. Currently, both lines see an average ridership of 1.8 lakh which is estimated to increase to 5 lakh by mid-2018.
It said that the use of innovative financing methods, similar to the ones proposed by BMRCL for the Outer Ring Road corridor between Central Silk Board and K.R. Puram, was being considered by the Union government.
