Commuters looking to use Namma Metro in the southern parts of the city will have to wait for two more months as plans to lift three coaches on to the elevated tracks to begin trial runs have been scrapped by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).
The stretch, which includes stations between National College and Putennahalli, has been ready for quite some time, but trial runs could not be started because of the absence of a depot, which connects to the line.
Earlier in May, BMRCL decided to call tenders to lift three coaches on to the track in order to begin trial runs in preparation for commencing commercial operations. However, the process was scrapped after officials learnt that there was no proper route to take the coaches from Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), the company which supplies the coaches to BMRCL, to the tracks where they were to undergo trials.
The reasons
BMRCL spokesperson U.A. Vasanth Rao said, “The first issue was that they had been asked to give a proper route map till Jayanagar. After transporting the coaches, we had to keep in mind that we would have to dismantle each coach to lift it on to the tracks and repeat the process three times. We decided not to go ahead with this as the process is very risky. Each train costs Rs 10 crore.” Another factor which aided this decision was the fact that tunnelling on the stretch between Sampige Road station and KR Market is expected to be completed soon.
“By end of November or mid-December, we hope to be able to finish tunnelling, which will give us an opportunity to take the coach through the tunnel,” said Mr. Rao This would mean that trials are expected to start in January. “By March-April, we hope to make the stretch operational,” he added.
