Saving Rs 500 crore in a Rs 75K crore project isn’t important: Expert

BENGALURU: Citizens, domain experts and politicians on Saturday unanimously agreed that Cantonment Metro Station’s location should not be moved to Bamboo Bazaar. BMRCL officials were absent at the event.

At a round table conference held to discuss the integration of public transport systems in the city, the spotlight was on not changing the Metro Station’s location. It got strong support from two MPs who attended the event.

BMRCL’s decision of not having any of their representatives at the conference was also criticised, as questions were raised about the body’s lack of transparency.

Bengaluru Central MP from BJP, P C Mohan had earlier written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to retain the Metro’s original alignment. At the event, he listed reasons BMRCL MD Pradeep Singh Kharola had given him for changing the alignment, and the MP countered them all.

He assured that he would take up the matter with Bengaluru Development Minister K J George. Rajya Sabha MP from Congress Rajeev Gowda assured of more transparency in BMRCL’s workings, saying, “Ours is the party that brought in the Right to Information.”

Resident Rajkumar Dugar, who has been a long-time campaigner of the Cantonment station issue, said: “Considering the Cantonment station has a footfall of over 30,000 per day, the move is illogical,” he said.
Urban architect Naresh Narasimhan, making a reference to the perception that Kharola was making decisions on his own, said, “It started as Namma Metro but now seems to have become ‘Nanna Metro’ (My Metro). It’s a `75,000 crore project, how is saving `500 crore so important? Is it happening due to one person’s giant ego?

At the conference, Urban transport expert Sanjeev Dyamannavar said various metro stations in the city were not as smoothly integrated with other modes of public transport. “In other cities, detailed project reports of major works are available in the public domain, then why isn’t it the same here?”

Issues discussed:
Shifting of Cantonment Metro station from opposite Cantonment Railway Station to a BBMP playground at Bamboo Bazaar Integration of existing Metro stations with other public transport systems, and also of upcoming Phase II stations Lack of transparency in government agencies, especially BMRCL
Lack of connectivity of BMTC buses, and the need to reduce their fares

Citizens raise issues with BMTC
BMTC Chairman Nagaraj Yadav was questioned about the lack of connectivity of buses at certain areas, especially at Nayandahalli junction. Yadav said though the organisation was incurring heavy losses, He was ready to approve more buses, provided people use them.
The crowd-funded conference was jointly organised by four RWAs — Citizens for Bengaluru, Citizens’ Action Forum and Bus Prayanikara Vedike and Praja RAAG.