Metro alignment: upset Jayanagar residents hold emergency meeting

The stretch of Lakshman Rau Boulevard on R.V. Road which will face the axe for the proposed Namma Metro's Phase 2 alignment. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Angry with the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation for not having heeded their requests to consider alternative solutions to the Metro alignment in Jayanagar which would avoid decimating Lakshman Rau Boulevard, residents of 8 Block Jayanagar held an emergency meeting on Saturday to decide the further course of action.

The alignment proposed by the BMRCL currently for phase II of the Metro project will take away several stretches of the iconic park in order to connect R.V. Road and Electronics City. A public meeting held a few months ago in this regard saw spirited opposition to the plan to construct piers in the middle of the park.

“It is not that we don’t want the Metro, but we don’t want the park destroyed. They have already made a blunder with phase 1, let them not repeat it,” said Y.K. Muddukrishna, President, Samanvaya Vedike, who took part in the meeting on Saturday. The meeting included names like G. Venkatasubbaiah and area MLA B.N. Vijayakumar.

In the coming days, the residents are planning to approach the Chief Minister seeking his intervention in protecting the parks located in the two-km-long boulevard which extends from South End Circle to Rajalakshmi Kalyan Mantap.