Civil work at the three metro stations KR Market, Chikpet and Kempegowda Interchange will be completed by December, City Development Minister K.J. George announced on Friday.
During a visit to the Kempegowda station, where he dedicated 100 wheelchairs donated by the Rotary Club to Namma Metro, Mr. George said that he would continue to monitor the progress in Phase I to ensure that it was completed as soon as possible.
"I am hoping they can make Phase I operational by March but by April it will be completed for sure," he said.
He also said that he had approved the metro link on the Outer Ring Road between KR Puram and Silk Board junction. "The file will now be sent to the cabinet and the CM for approval," he said. The ORR metro link is expected to cost around Rs 4000 crore and will be funded by a mix of Government funding, private borrowing as well as innovative financing measures. These were however not elaborated upon.
Metro depots to get solar power
Two Namma Metro depots will soon get solar power installations which will be able to generate a maximum of 10000 units of electricity per day.
Depots at Peenya and Baiyappanahalli will have solar generation plants of around 1 MW capacity each. The power generated will be used for machinery within the depots and extra power will be fed into the BESCOM grid.
"We estimate savings of Rs 51 crore over a 25 year period from this. More such stations will be set up at no cost to BMRCL at upcoming depots in Kothanur, Whitefield, Hebbagodi and Challaghatta," a senior Metro official said.
