The fight between Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) and citizens over the location of Namma Metro’s Cantonment station is set to intensify in the coming days. This is because citizens are unhappy with the BMRCL’s clarification on the reasons for moving the station location away from the railway station to under a playground at Bamboo Bazaar.
On Sunday, P.C. Mohan, MP, wrote a strongly worded letter to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in support of the protesting citizens who have brushed away the BMRCL’s reasons for relocating the station as lies.
In a point-by-point rebuttal to all the reasons cited by the BMRCL in a press conference on Thursday, Mr. Mohan has urged the State government to reconsider its decision. He pointed out that the approvals given to the BMRCL were based on the earlier design where the metro station was integrated with the railway station.
The MP has also called out the BMRCL’s citing of a Railways rule stating that tunnelling must be done only at a depth of 30 m below railway tracks.
“Kindly provide a copy of the order. As per my information, there is no such order. In my opinion, this rule cited above is to mislead the public,” he said.
For citizens opposing the move, the explanation by the BMRCL is being seen as a scare tactic citing safety, something they are not willing to accept quietly.
BMRCL managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola had earlier said that a cave-in had occurred 20 m below the city railway station during tunnelling for phase I and a track had been left hanging dangerously while passenger movement had continued. He had also cited the length of the tunnel at 1.8 km for the original plan for the Cantonment station as being a safety problem if a train stalled midway.
“When the Delhi airport express line has achieved more than the target of depth and length required for the BMRCL, why can’t they take their advise. This job of building and running the metro train system has, we hope, not been handed over to incompetent people,” said Rajkumar Dugar, one of the opponents to the shift.
Sanjeev V. Dyamannavar from Praja RAAG, an advocacy group, said, “When there are examples everywhere of these kind of tunnels being built, the BMRCL must stop fooling Bengaluru.”
