BMRCL Drops Bangalore Metro’s Whitefield Station from Phase 2 Map
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) yesterday revealed an updated detailed map of its 15.257 km elevated Reach 1A & 1B sections which will extend the 18.10 km Purple Line further eastward from Baiyappanahalli Station under the 73.95 km Phase 2 project. The alignment of the line shown in this new map resembles the alignment revealed on December 9 2016, except that it now terminates at Ujjval Vidyalaya Station instead of the Whitefield Station which was planned south of the Kodugodi Bus Station.
The line’s curtailed design is just another change among a series of late-changes, of varying degree, being carried out at different locations all over the city for the new network, such as Bangalore Cantonment & RV Road, due to a host of reasons.
Here are BMRCL’s old and new maps. I’ve added labels & arrows for clarity. A link to each map, in its unadulterated form, is in the caption below each map.
Old Map by BMRCL (Released in December 2016)
Old alignment showing the line terminating short of IR’s tracks with a station called Whitefield – Source: BMRCL
New Map by BMRCL (Released in September 2017)
New alignment showing the line terminating at Ujjval Vidyalaya Station – Source: BMRCL
The reason for dropping the Whitefield Station is unknown (perhaps to cut down cost? Perhaps their inability to acquire land to cut down a dense growth of trees?), but should be out in the media over the next couple days. Like the protests over the Cantonment Station’s new location & its negative effects on inter-modal connectivity, prepare for some outrage from locals on this change as well.
Update – As per the Economic Times, land acquisition is indeed the reason-
“Although the land belongs to the state government, acquisition of any forest land which is more than two hectares needs approval of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change,“ Dipika Bajpai, deputy conservator of forests, Bengaluru Urban. The department, she added, has received a request from the Namma Metro authorities.“Since they require more than 25 hectares of land both for depot and station, we will write to the Union Government,“ she added.
This suggests the issue is temporary in nature, but as far as current plans go – the station will not be constructed along with the rest of Phase 2 at this point of time.
Update#2 – The station has now been added to the map. It should have been there regardless of land acquisition issues. Instead of coming up on the eastern side of Whitefield Main Road, they’ve now switched its site to the western side.
Distance to Kadugodi Bus Station – approx. 120m
Distance to Whitefield Railway Station – approx. 350m
BMRCL’s updated new map showing Whitefield Station
Meanwhile, after Reach 1A, workers from the ITD Cem India JV have also started tying up rebar to build Reach 1B’s piers. Here’s a recent image of the 1st pier taking shape –
Rebar framework of the 1st pier for #Bangalore Metro’s Reach-1B (Visvesvaraya Ind Area – Whitefield) is now visible near Hope Farm Junction pic.twitter.com/XkXZe3Un3I
— The Metro Rail Guy (@TheMetroRailGuy) September 10, 2017
For more updates, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Hat tip to Naveen Menezes
I don’t care. I’ll be satisfied as long as the line reaches hope farm.
Irony is that there will be no station named “Whitefield” when the Whitefield extension opens up LOL
This should help in completing this section faster and open this to the public earlier.
Wait. Wasn’t the project approved in 2014? Why is BMRCL only now requesting for land?
Good question. Plans for Kadugodi Depot emerged only in 2016 after the ORR line’s DPR was out, but plans for a “Whitefield” station at that piece of forest land have been in place for a long, long time. The legwork for this should have started right after the state govt’s approval in 2011 and not after the civil contract is awarded.
Some practical challenges
a. Finance – Land acquisition costs in the cities are very high. Unless one gets loan approval from foreign countries at low interest rates, not possible to acquire costly land.
b. Guarding the acquired land – Unless govt can fence or barricade the acquired land and guard it with manpower, temporary constructions will immediately crop up post acquisition. Who does not want to use the land next to the main road? So, if land acquisition is done earlier, they will need to do a second round of land acquisition from temporary acquirers or spend a lot of money on barricading and protecting acquired land.
Foreign lenders only fund the construction and/or systems component. Land acquisition process (funding, initiation & settlement) falls under the state government’s scope of things. BMRCL’s role in this is to push/influence government agencies to set the ball rolling.
Guarding land is a tricky job, but if the state govt & operator announce a certain deadline, perhaps they should initiate steps years in advance knowing how slow things work? In this case, if not in 2011, then perhaps in 2015?
Hello
As whitefield metro station dropped and again added i think its a bluff to shut public mouth.
Now only it is visible that there is no further meteo conatruction is going on after ujjwala vidyalay
Please dont make public fool as it will go till kadugodi bridge and further.
Not related to the article.
But any idea why we don’t construct pillars offsite and simply install them on site. This could speed up things by many factors. They could take measurements and survey, write a spec and give it to offsite manufacturing. You could build pillars way faster in the absence of traffic and other problems. Pillars could be build as quickly as they can and just be shipped and installed onsite.
You still need to build the foundation. But that could be done faster with work onsite being reduced by a large extent.
Am I missing any thing obvious like logistics of carrying large pillars?
Or is this just another fallout of slicing and dicing the parts of the project to many contractors, lack of integrated approach and short sightedness?
I dont think its possible, as each pillar done with Pile foundation:, based on soil test!
Yep. Each pier effectively comprises of 3 parts which must be cast one after the other to form one structurally sound unit – pile, pile cap and pier. Heavy weight for safe transportation is probably another factor.
Pier caps can be cast offsite and launched on top of piers, but I haven’t ever seen piers being cast offsite.
Better this than the project being stuck for clearances.The area is hopeless as it stands and my worst nightmare is that my next project/company will be in ITPL.
Hi TMRG, are there any hopes that 1A will be thrown open to public before 1B? Even the connectivity upto hoodi junction will help a lot of people.
That’ll likely be the case as operations can only start when the main-line is connected to a depot (Green Line’s southern section serves as a good local example).
Since the Kadugodi depot is stuck, the plan to switch depots (ORR line will get Byp and Purple line will get Kadugodi) will drag on further.
I think you’re blowing this out of proportion. They don’t have the land for it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s been dropped from Reach 1.
The station will come up eventually whenever they’re able to secure land, but at this time, its construction won’t be carried out along with the rest of the stations.
Look, I get it. It’s just an alignment map, nothing else. But with transparency absolutely poor on BMRCL’s end, I take whatever official document is out there to be an insight into what’s cooking inside the organization. I saw a difference in the maps and wrote about whatever info is publicly out there and even posted an update explaining the cause and clarifying how the issue is temporary in nature.
BMRCL should perhaps have been more responsible by labeling the station on its original spot and indicating it’s a tentative location. Instead, we’ve got a moth eaten map with no labels published right on their home page for the public to see. No operator does that. If land acquisition was such an important factor in maps, then perhaps they shouldn’t h ave shown the underground stations in the Line-4’s alignment map.
Hi TMRG
We all are little scared on the impact of Metro construction near ITPL area. It is going to have huge impact on the traffic flow very soon.It is going to last for 3-4 years
Good news is currently road widening working is happening in the Shell petrol bunk ( From D mart to Accenture ) .This work needs to happen at the earliest so that we can get some relief .
If they allow the back side road from Kundenhali lake to Accenture then it will be of great help .
Is it not already creating impact? I come from other side, Hoodi, Graphite India where they already started work… Road widening didn’t really happen as expected, there are lot of potholes…. They dig mid of the road for piling work… Because of the last week’s rain all mud have come on road… Its hell for 2 wheelers….
Looks like its updated now….
Haha… Looks like BMRCL people saw this post and realized their mistake.
Hail TMRG and Hail Democracy !!!
Cool – I’ve updated the post with an updated map and info.
There ia no construction after ujjwala vidyalaya means whitefield station is dropped
Hi TMRG
It is printing mistake from the BMRCL…maybe you can delete this post…
For a minute my heart stopped. And while giving the update, you could have modified the title instead of retaining the same title of “WF station to be dropped…”
But now also you can undo the damage. Please change the title (instead of creating a new post) stating that “WF Station Retained” or “WF Station deleted by mistake”.
But do not delete this post.
Regards,
S. Manikantan
Chennai
Most of us would be happy if metro can just get to Hoodi as quickly as possible, for a fact this needed to have happened in phase-1. This should have had a higher priority over the green line which runs far beyond yeshvantpur & peenya to Nagasandra simply because tumkur road has an existing elevated expressway along its stretch plus the main road is a nice wide 3+3(6) lane with the presence of service road.
Guys,
This an excellent site and sitting in Canada i get updates on my beloved Blore Metro everyday (i am hoping to be back in Blore by 2019). I see some comments are harsh on TMRG. Please stop for a moment and assimilate the yeomen service provided by TMRG. These guys are true enthusiast and i cant even think of how they are able to bet financial backing to this initiative.
This site should be provided as a link in the BMRCL site or better still BMRCL should partner with this site and close theirs. I seen their site and it cannot match what TMRG is doing.
Thanks for your great work.
Totally agree!!
Undesriable and Wasteful Comments are definitely not required.
But constructive comments that will improve the contents and enable TMRG to give more, should not be treated as ‘hurting’.
Even TMRG can make errors and if public point out, it should not be construed as harsh.
We love TMRG. That’s why we are here. Not for evil-fun.
yelachenahalli-anjanapura-metro-likely-dec 2018 – 23 sept 2017
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/634446/yelachenahalli-anjanapura-metro-likely-dec.html
This is great news !!
Saw this news as well. Dont know how far this can be achieved. These could just be false promises for an election year.
Hi Vijay
We cannot compare elevated section with underground sections.
Most of the delay happened in Phase 1 is related to underground sections.
For elevated sections , the maximum delay can be 6 months to year. It is very similar to construction of a flyover . So we should be more optimistic.If BMRCL puts all efforts then it should be possible.
Bamboo bazaar station details
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDNHzu4acrc
Hi TMRG , Please share your views on the same .
Hello Everyone,
I have two comments on this phase 2 plan.
1) Could BMRCL mutually interchange the station names of Kadugodi and Whitefield? The proposed Kadugodi metro station is closer to Whitefield village than it is to Kadugodi. And the proposed Whitefield station is on the doorsteps of Kadugodi.
2) Why could the terminal station of the metro not be constructed on top of the Whitefield Railway Station? Turn the line right by 90 degrees, and voila, plenty of space to have an integrated metro and long distance railway stations. a lot of eastbound long distance train traffic could go via whitefield. there is plenty car parking space at the railway station, that could be developed further.
BMRCL works in their own island, they dont know the concept of holistic public transport.
Hi,
Is there any plans of metro station coming to hebbal? If yes, then will it connect to the gorguntepalya station? Also, when will nagwara line construction start?
You are correct. most modern construction take place much like Lego toys and get finally assembled for those exact reasons. Be it flyover cross sections or self extending railway tracks it boils down to a balance of time; budget; willingness to adapt new techniques, availability of space, profitability, quality, risk appetite etc. However, load bearing pillars are generally cast on site and not pre-cast. Although they can certainly be done far faster than the digging done with ‘tooth picks’ presently.
The train lines are their in white field , why metro is not planed in old madras road
Just wanted to understand why the purple lane extension towards Whitefield could not have been done underground? As if the width of roads weren’t already an issue that we now have extra congestion as well. Couldn’t underground rail work have helped without interfering overhead road traffic?
For track it would have good but what about stations. It would block the road for 2-3 years minimum. Thats the challenge. Hope you remember minsk square (Cubbon park station) One road was blocked for 3-4years. Even they closed MG road for 6month for Trinity station.
hi , i would like to know who the architect and structural consultant and PMC is for stretch 1B? also what is the ;proposed construction cost of extension 1B(visvesvaraya industrial area to whitefield)
Dear TMRG,
Any idea on what is expected completion date for the mysore road extension to Kengeri? The progress on ground seems to be good.
Regards,
-Prakash
Awaiting for the Metro Project to go live in Whitefield/ITPL to have a commute friendly and pollution/dust free commuting and thoughtful working.
Hi Tmrg
Why metro constrxution is not happening further after ujjwala vidyalay.
It means that whitefield station is dropped finally
Metro terminating at Ujjval Vidyalaya is not the completion of work. The passengers from the trains from different destination to reach different areas of metro proposed need to take some other transportation to reach Ujjval Vidyalaya it will be to hard to face the local auto or other means of transportation operators. My suggestion is instead of Ujjval Vidyalaya take a straight at Hope Farm junction extending towards Chikka Thirupathi Road and taking turn left after the 350 metres in the road called Aravind Limbavali Road reaching to WhiteField Rly. Stn.is more beneficial to the train commuters as well sourounding public. Even now nothing is impossible to the Government stop Ujjval Vidyalaya station making a change is more beneficial.
Hi TMRG
Is there a proposal to integrate the rail, bus and metro station at kadugodi terminal?
It would be excellent to have an underground subway that connects Whitefield railway station, bmtc bus terminal and metro station. Most of the folks living around kadugodi are patients who frequent Satya Sai baba super speciality hospital near itpl. Besides people lugging heavy bags from the railway station to bmtc stop. Both are not pretty scenes. The railway station is designed so poorly putting the passenger in harm’s way.
Please let me know if there is already a proposal that you are aware of or if concerned citizen like me have already put in request
Metro station should be built near whitefield Railway station so that the passengers who are alighting from train should board the metro to go to different part of city. Metro station should not be far away from railway station.
This will be total waste of resources if the Metro terminates at Ujjval Vidyalaya and not at whitefield station
Would the metro line on Whitefield road cover the Sai baba ashram as well ?