By IANS,
Bangalore : The central government will clear the second phase of the metro rail service to cover an additional 72 km across this tech hub, Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath said Thursday.
“As we are committed to providing an efficient mass rapid transit system under the urban infrastructure policy, we will clear the second phase of the metro project to cover an additional 72 km across the city,” Nath said after flagging off the 6.7-km metro rail service from M.G. Road in city centre to Baiyappannahalli in the eastern suburb.
Assuring the central government’s support to the state government in improving the public transport service in the city, Nath advised state chief minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda to send a detailed project report of the second phase at the earliest for his ministry’s approval.
“Our objective is to move people across the city and not vehicles. Rapid transit systems like metro provide faster, safer and eco-friendly service to the people in cities and ease the traffic chaos due to personal vehicles used in the absence of an alternative to state-run buses,” Nath said.
Under the first phase of the ambitious project, the state-run Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) is expected to execute the remaining 35.6-km route, with 18.1 km on east-west corridor and 24.2 km on north-south corridor, including 8.8 km underground in the city centre, by 2014, at a revised cost of Rs.11,609 crore ($2.37 billion).
The corporation has spent Rs.4,000 crore for building the 6.7-km Reach-1 of the first phase with time overruns and cost escalation due to various factors.
In the second phase, the expanded project is estimated to cost a whopping Rs.23,800 crore and cover the extended areas of the growing city.
Gowda had agreed to approve the second phase at the earliest for the central government’s clearance.
Nath also agreed to clear the high-speed rail link to connect the city centre with the Bangalore international airport at Devanahalli, about 35 km away, at a cost of Rs.6,000 crore. BMRCL will execute the project.
“With metros and cities contributing about 60 percent to the country’s gross domestic support (GDP), urban infrastructure development faces huge challenges in terms of funds, land acquisition and timely execution. As urban population is projected to exceed 500 million by 2020, state governments have to plan for suburbanization and satellite towns to ease the pressure on mega cities and their infrastructure,” Nath observed.