Application to CMRS Submitted by BMRCL for Underground Inspection
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. has finally submitted its application with all necessary paperwork to the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) to visit and inspect Bangalore Metro’s MG Road – Magadi Road section! The CMRS’ visual inspection of the tracks & trains is mandatory, and the last step before commencing commercial operations for any metro system in India.
This news was confirmed by BMRCL’s General Manager of Finance in a tweet yesterday which has been embedded below:
@SridharKasetti apply submitted -inspection scheduled shortly
— Vasanth Rao (@uavasanthrao) March 23, 2016
The 4.8 km section between MG Road – Magadi Road runs primarily underground between the Cubbon Park and City Railway metro stations, and tunneling work for it under contract UG-2 was completed by the CEC-SOMA-CICI JV in March 2014. Trial runs on it started in November 2015. Recently, the BMRCL’s MD took K.J. George, Karnataka’s Minister for Bengaluru Development and Town Planning, and an entourage of media personnel on a tour of the underground stations. 10+ brilliant images from it can be seen here: [Pics] Bangalore Metro’s Underground Section Nearing Completion
Purple line’s underground section – view Bangalore Metro map and information
The 5 underground stations on this section include Cubbon Park, Vidhana Soudha, Sir. M Visveshwaraya, Majestic (under construction by Coastal-GYT JV) and Bangalore City railway station.
The inspection of this section is now entirely dependent on the CMRS’ schedule. Once the invitation is accepted, the inspection’s duration can take anywhere from 3 days to a week after which it would take another week for the CMRS to send its report with approval (hopefully) and any suggestions on how to safely operate trains. After the approval comes through, the inauguration date would then depend on (1) how quickly BMRCL wraps up interior works, especially at Majestic (see recent images) and (2) the availability of ministers for attending the all-important inauguration function.
When this section opens up, Bangalore Metro’s network will expand from 25.5 km to 30.3 km, and more importantly bridge the gap between the elevated 6.7 km Reach 1 (Baiyappanahalli – MG Road) and the 6.4 km Reach 2 (Magadi Road – Mysore Road) where the BMRCL currently operates fragmented services:
Operational sections of Bangalore’s Metro – view Bangalore Metro map & information
Tunneling work between Sampige Road – Majestic – Chickpet on the Green line is nearing completion by 3 TBMs. Please see my March 2016 tunneling update for data & some commentary on its progress.
For more updates on the Bangalore metro, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Counting down the days now. Can’t wait…
Great News!! Hope they complete the inspection ASAP 😉
please complete the inspection ASAP people are waiting for this route to open
Finally… Hope all the interior works are complete before inauguration of this stretch. It is also very important to maintain cleanliness of the stations and trains
April 2nd week a realistic inauguration time then?!
Depends on the CMRS inspection and approval. Once that is done, we’ll have a better idea.
After this section, which section of the Green Line is most likely to be opened to the public?
Sampige Road – Majestic. Construction of one of the tunnels is complete. The other one has roughly 170m pending.
Even after completion of other tunnel, it still takes lot of time for track laying, trial run, CMRS inspection and Inauguration.
What would be estimated time needed according to you for this?
Absolutely correct – those tasks are quite time consuming. As per the latest progress reported by Vasanth Rao on March 28, TBM Godavari has completed 852m & has another 112.5m pending, so I’m expecting it to make a breakthrough by the end of April.
Now, If they can start trial runs by September, then opening it by the end of the year would be possible since this section is relatively small (1.5 km) and has no intermediate stations that need to be completed. If they plan to operate trains through a single line, then it would open up before that, perhaps by October. We’ll have to wait and see what their game plan is.
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, year end opening should be realistic target.
However, I really doubt if operations can be started with only one tunnel. there can be safety and emergency and operational constraints.
DMRC currently operates trains between Mandi House & ITO (violet line) using one tunnel, so it is possible to do the same in Bangalore as well as long as tunneling work on the other tunnel and cross-passage work for evacuation is complete. Let’s see what BMRCL plans to do. Right now they’re being very tight lipped about specifics.
Oh.. That’s Great news then.. I hope BMRCL follow the same.
The BMTC buses running from BHEL to Nayandahalli and vice versa direction fly over the fly over. If they fly below the fly over commuters would be benefitted. Request do the needful and advice BMTC drivers accordingly.
By when is CMRS expected to start the inspection? This week?
Yup. Vasanth Rao expects the dates to be finalized “around Monday”.
can we expect the metro purple line full stretch operation from May ?
Yes, should be functional by then. If the CMRS inspection and approval is done by early April, then a mid/late April opening is possible.
any indications of when the inspection team will visit Underground tracks of namma metro ?
Not yet. I’ll share the dates whenever they are announced. Keep an eye on the Home Page.
i think the process delayed for some reason. what is the reason for delay in inspection ?
BMRCL officials are being extremely unresponsive about the inspections’ dates.
In the meanwhile, they’re taking this time to wrap up work at Majestic which has a long way to go before opening. I would not be surprised if any further “delay” is attributed to the CMRS inspection.