The Central Silk Board to Airport Terminal is one of the crucial links among the ongoing Metro projects. It not only connects many tech hubs (located all along the outer ring road), but also to the airport line. One of the key challenges for this project was land acquisition.
BMRCL sources say that 91.28 per cent of land required for 2A and 2B phases have been acquired. There will be 30 stations on the 58.19 km stretch.
The estimated cost for completing this stretch is Rs 14,788.10 crore.
According to BMRCL, the phase 2B (airport line) is 38 km in length. Out of 2,23,655.72 sqm required for viaduct and stations, 2,15,616.24 sqm is acquired and 2,10,799.47 sqm is handed over to the engineering section.
The payment of compensation for the remaining area is under progress. Out of 23 acres of land required for depot at Shettigere, 18 acres is transferred by the State government and is handed over to the BMRCL. As the remaining five acres of land was under litigation, BMRCL had requested the government for transfer of 4-34 acre of land adjacent to 18 acres already granted for the depot. The BMRCL is evaluating alternate options. So far, Rs 398.48 crore compensation is paid for phase-2A and Rs 1,512.14 crore for Phase–2B.
Among the other stretches, the 3-km Reach-3C–Extension (Nagasandra To Bangalore International Exhibition Centre), the acquisition for additional area of 1,885.11 sqm for providing road links to Chikkabidarakallu Metro Station from Anchepalya and other villages via Jindal-Prestige Layout has been set aside by the High Court.
Now, the builder has agreed to provide an approach road of 12-5 wide through its property.
Record tunnelling
Tunnel boring machine ‘Urja’, which is currently tunnelling between Cantonment and Pottery Town stations, has achieved a progress of 27 m of tunnelling work in a single day on April 25. BMRCL officials said that this is the fastest pace of tunnelling work in the City since Metro started tunnelling underground to facilitate the underground Metro works.
The Cantonment-Pottery town stretch is part of the Metro network that connects Bannerghatta Road to Nagawara.
