Already behind schedule by over nine months, Namma Metro Phase 1 received another deadline for completion.
On Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the tunnelling work for phase 1 should be completed within the next 300 days.
The delay in completion of phase 1 was owing to rocks encountered during the tunnelling work, for which four tunnel-boring machines had been deployed.
After visiting the Namma Metro work sites at Nagasandra, Vijayanagar, Chamarajpet and Central College, the Chief Minister told presspersons that civil works between Peenya and Nagasandra would be completed by February 2015 and the stretch between Magadi Road and Nayandahalli would be completed by April 2015.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) has been asked to complete the work on service roads, footpaths and drains by the end of this December, he said.
Tunnelling work
BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said while the tunnelling work had been completed for a distance of 18 km, work on a 2.5-km stretch was yet to be completed.
“By December-end, the tunnel work for phase 1 would be completed,” he said.
As the Chief Minister’s entourage, comprising two buses and several vehicles, moved around city, traffic came to a standstill. Movement of traffic was also affected around the Chief Minister’s home office on Kumara Krupa Road.
Transport Minister R. Ramalinga Reddy was present.