What Bangalore Metro needs is more openness

Complaints against Bangalore Metro do not seem to end. At an international conference on Metro Rail 2011, transportation experts and eminent Bangaloreans slammed Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRCL) for not being transparent about sharing information with the public.

“Bangalore is notorious for not giving information to public. Bangalore Metro is among the organisations which have refrained from giving any information to people in the public domain,” said BK Chandrashekhar, former minister of Karnataka and MLC.

He spoke of the three stations aligned in Jayanagar which are within 1.2 km which resulted in the destruction of the boulevard of a newly built  residential area.

“I did some research and found that no two Metro stations should be built within 800 metres. When I quizzed the Bangalore Metro MD, he justified it by saying that the density of population was the key factor for such an alignment,” he said.

He also shared information whereby he came to know that the BMRCL bulldozed the MG Road boulevard as the underground work would be costlier.

“When they can reserve the heritage of Vidhana Soudha and construct the metro track there under the ground, why could they not let the same underground track happen on MG Road,” he asked.

He criticised the Bangalore Metro officials for not giving proper publicity to the project.

“They held public discussions in some college auditoriums after informing about it through some newspapers. But they never took the suggestions of the common man walking on the road,” he said.

Alternative Law Forum, a law group, had filed an RTI to get information on the financial agreement between Japan International Cooperation Bank (JICA) and BMRCL in 2009. The Information Commissioner directed the BMRCL to give them the information they seek in April 2011.

“As far as I know, BMRCL said they cannot give the information because JICA directed them not to do so,” said Chandrashekhar.

Professor MN Sreehari, advisor to government on traffic, transportation and infrastructure and member of ABIDe Task Force, said the project should have been planned much earlier and executed in a better way.

“When the government planned the Bangalore Metro, it cost `6,500 crore to the state. The amount has now escalated to Rs8,700 crore. On top of this, the project gets delayed every day and it is the public money invested in the project which is suffering losses because of this,” said Sreehari.

Speakers and guests at the conference were also taken aback to note that BMRCL chose not to participate in the seminar.

“BMRCL’s non-participation at Metro Rail 2011 says it all,” said Chandrashekhar.