After enduring traffic snarls for years, motorists are finally enjoying the ‘smooth ride’ on the newly white-topped Outer Ring Road from Kasturi Nagar to Hebbal. But it will be temporary: the expensive concrete road project implemented by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is facing a threat from the planned Namma Metro project that will link the city to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).
Once the work begins, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) has to cut open the white-topped road to erect pillars for the metro corridor wherever median of the ORR is narrow. Metro officials claim that when the project is completed, the road will be restored, but this will take years. And unlike regular roads, restoring the white-topped stretches will be more expensive. The tender for this stretch is yet to be awarded.
Most of the 12-km stretch, barring Nagawara and Veerannapalya, has been white-topped. The BBMP had taken up white-topping work in 2018-19 at a cost of about ₹15 crore for every km (six lanes).
Blame game
When asked about lack of coordination between the BBMP and the BMRCL, a civic official maintained that the alignment of the metro line to the KIA was finalised only after the white-topping project was cleared. “The BMRCL had initially proposed to build a metro network to the international airport from Nagawara via Hegde Nagar and Jakkur. The new alignment was recently approved so the question on lack of coordination does not arise,” said the civic official.
Replying to the BBMP’s accusation on delayed alignments, chief PRO of the BMRCL B.L. Yeshawanth Chavan said, “It is wrong to say that the metro alignment was decided later. Metro projects are discussed at the high-powered committee level where the BBMP is also a stakeholder. When it comes to implementing the project on the median of the Outer Ring Road, we will follow the set standards on restoration of the road after completing the project. In the past too, we had restored the road after completing the project. This will be repeated on the ORR too.”
Civic officials said they had been communicating with the BMRCL on the project. “As per the new alignment, the metro corridor will come on the median of the road. To build the pillars, the BMRCL is likely to occupy around 5 metres of land on the median. They may have to cut open the white-topped road. We will come up with certain riders to facilitate the metro work and restoration of the road,” said a BBMP official.
He maintained that white-topped roads had a durability of over 25 years. “Even when metro work begins, barring a portion of the stretch, motorists will still enjoy the benefits of white-topping. This is not the case with other roads in the city where the metro work is under way,” he added.
The BMRCL is building 58-km ORR-airport line from the Central Silk Board to the KIA. Work has already begun between the Central Silk Board and K.R. Puram and for the remaining 38 km, tender evaluation is under progress. The project is likely to be completed by 2025.
