Do Namma Metro authorities tell citizens one thing and global agencies that finance the project another?
Activists say this seems to be the case as the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report prepared by Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) for European Investment Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank claims that “meaningful” public consultations have been held and that the Cantonment metro station would be integrated with the railway station.
“The alignment traverses below the built-up areas by the side of Queen’s Road, cuts across the road and turns right to reach the front car parking area of Bangalore Cantonment railway station,” the EIA states.
However, a few weeks ago, BMRCL’s maps of the 21.25-km line between Gottigere to Nagawara, which includes 13.8 km of underground tunnels, showed that Cantonment metro station would be situated near Bamboo Bazaar, nearly 1 km from the railway station. It sparked off protests from citizens and urban activists, who said this would effectively break the link between the railway station and metro commuters.
Moreover, the EIA report, prepared in August, states that a “formal stakeholder and public consultation session” was held on May 18 at Baiyappanahalli where “issues of environment, health and safety were discussed”.
Sanjeev V. Dyamannavar, an urban transportation expert, said: “There is a concerted effort to limit public consultation. They call people from industry and claim it is a public consultation. We too are stakeholders in the project as citizens of the city and have a right to discuss the environmental cost and station locations.”
However, BMRCL said the EIA presented only a “rough map”. “Our stand on Cantonment station is clear and the work has been tendered too. The EIA is a rough map and will not present the exact station locations,” said Pradeep Singh Kharola, managing director, BMRCL.
On the public consultation, he said only those whose lands would be acquired were called for it. “This was a requirement for social impact assessment. There is no need for wider public consultation on this,” he said.
Expect more delays
Among all the reaches of Phase II of Namma Metro, the 13.8-km underground section between Dairy Circle and Nagawara is expected to take the most time for construction, particularly considering the delays that dogged the 8-km underground sections of Phase I.
However, the land acquisition process is still in the early stages. BMRCL officials say while preliminary notification for five stations till M.G. Road station were sent, no notification has been sent yet for seven stations between Shivajinagar and Nagawara.
Officials estimate it may three months for the complete handover of land for five stations, and up to eight months (or, April 2018) for the rest of the land to be acquired.
This is a delay from the time frame mentioned in the Environment Impact Assessment report. “The construction works for elevated sections are expected to commence by August 2017 and finish by July 2020,” the report states.
BMRCL estimates that more than ₹2,300 crore will be spent on acquiring 2.7 lakh sq. m of land. At present, just 251 properties along the elevated stretch between Gottigere and Swagath Road stations have been acquired.
