Bangalore: CMRS’ Inspection of Underground Section Begins Today
Hat tip to @aydiav for bringing this to my attention!
The safety inspection of Bangalore Metro’s primarily underground 4.8 km section between MG Road & Magadi Road will begin from today! 🙂 The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. had yesterday published a press release detailing their operational plans for running restricted metro services today (April 5) and simply attributed it “to facilitate Underground Commissioning works“. However, in an interview to the TOI, K.J. George, Minister for Bengaluru Development and Town Planning, has revealed that it is in fact for the line’s safety inspection to be carried out by the Commissioner for Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) and will take 3 days to complete.
Besides reducing the frequency along Reach 1 (Baiyappanahalli – MG Road) and Reach 2 (Magadi Road – Mysore Road), the plan involves closing down the MG Road and Magadi Road stations. Both of these lie on either side of the underground section and would be the start & end points of the inspection.
BMRCL’s Press Release – Source: Citizen Matters
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.
Operational sections of Bangalore’s Metro – view Bangalore Metro map & information
On March 23, the BMRCL had submitted their application with all necessary paperwork to the CMRS to visit & inspect the underground section. Since then, its otherwise loquacious officials had strangely been tight lipped about the inspection dates and chose not to respond back with details about it.
What’s interesting is that in March-end, the BMRCL had invited tenders for catering services (including 10,000 ladoos!) at the inauguration ceremony and made a special note that the prices have to be “valid for 45 days“. For that to still hold true, this schedule of the inspection fits right into it. After the inspection is complete, the CMRS is expected to submit a report within 7-10 days with its approval and any suggestions on how to safely operate trains.
For more updates on the Bangalore metro, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Thanks for the update TMRG. There is something fishy about the communication here. Why should BMRCL claim it is Underground commissioning works while the minister says it is for safety inspection by the CMRS. What is BMRCL trying to hide here?
Hi, I believe the wording is fine. Keyword is “facilitate”. Perhaps they didn’t want to get too technical as sometimes our journalists have trouble understanding?
Maybe the fact that the underground stations are still far from completion is what the BMRCL is trying to hide. If people cannot get in and get out of the incomplete majestic station when the underground train services start, and the train just zooms through this vital station without stopping, then the entire purpose of this section is defeated. The purple line would just be reduced to a toy train and/or a tourist attraction then.
I couldn’t agree more! The Majestic station’s completion is something that worries me as well. Another issue is the City Railway metro station – they haven’t yet built a connection to the railway station. For Reach 2, the BMRCL delayed the opening by months and blamed it on the CMRS who later revealed that the approval was already given and didn’t know why BMRCL hasn’t started services already! Quite embarrassing for the BMRCL’s MD, but I don’t think he really cares.
Yes TMRG, totally agree with you. The BMRCL’s MD doesn’t care. Being a Babu from the 70s era, he reached the MD post by being tough and dominating towards his subordinates and juniors, overly servile and accommodating to Netas and seniors, and most importantly having a thick skin to criticism. This formula for success gets played out in all government and few private companies even to this day.
If I remember correctly, a couple of years back, they wanted to start the EW corridor without any stop at Majestic so that people could zoom through while the work at Majestic would go on. I think even if Majestic is not complete, it will still be valuable because there are thousands of people staying in the western part of Bangalore and working near Vidhana Soudha, MG Road, Ulsoor, Indiranagar and Bagmane Tech Park. Also if BMTC introduces connectivity between Baiyyappanahlli to ITPL with volvo buses, Baiyyappanahalli can be an interchange instead of Majestic for people going towards KR Puram, ORR, ITPL and Whitefield.
Regardng the City Railway Station, it is just going to be a dummy station without any value and in the middle of nowhere without any bus or connectivity. It is the same fate as the Yeshwantpur station where there was no connectivity to the Yeshwantpur SWR line deterring people from using it. I don’t still know if it exists yet. This just highlights the utter lack of coordination between different agencies!