CM has promised to look into the Metro issue: Residents

The house owners, who are set to lose their properties in the realignment of Namma Metro Phase 2 on Bannerghatta Road, have urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to intervene in the matter.

Owners of 98 residential and commercial properties, which have been earmarked for acquisition for the R.V. Road Junction–Bommasandra line and Gottigere–Nagavara line intersection, said the government’s intervention would save them.

“We have already met the Chief Minister once and he has promised to look into the matter,” K. Ramesh, one of the property owners, told presspersons here on Thursday. The new alignment threatens the houses of 54 senior citizens, a few whose buildings are still under construction and loss of business to many others, he added.

Further, it would increase costs for Namma Metro by several hundred crores. Seeking a master plan to bring about a meaningful and consolidated development, he said there is an immediate requirement for all the agencies involved in infrastructure development to work in tandem. “The civic authorities have also planned signal-free corridors and underpasses on both BTM Layout Main Road and Bannerghatta Road, which will also clash with metro alignment,” he said.

Defends changes

Meanwhile, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research C.N. Manjunath told

The Hindu that the hospital would have to come to a standstill in the original alignment. “The construction of metro station on the hospital premises would take two to three years during which there would be increased sound and air pollution, which would hasten infection and possibly cause death.”

Even in the new alignment, he pointed out that the hospital would lose about one acre of the 13-acre campus to the project. “There is no further scope for expansion on the campus since nearly one-and-a-half acres of land has been rendered useless due to a high tension wire passing over it. I am trying to protect the hospital.”

Dr. Manjunath said the hospital has received communication from the BMRCL about the decision taken at the high-power committee meeting.