Namma Metro

Central Silk Board

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation

Kempegowda International Airport

Karnataka State Police

Cantonment Metro

Silk Board will live up to its infamous reputation as Bengaluru’s worst traffic nightmare even afterstarts traversing through the junction. Only this time, those stuck in the slow lane would be Metro commuters.The two Metro stations proposed to come up injunction will be at least 300 metres apart, the revised plan ofLtd (BMRCL) shows.The 18-km RV Road-Bommas­andra corridor (under Phase II) and the 19-km Central Silk Board-KR Puram line (in Phase II-A) will criss-cross at the junction. The original design in which the two stations of Phase II and Phase II (A&B) were integrated at the busy junction (just like at Majestic Metro station) has been dropped quietly.“We had to change the design keeping in mind the operational difficulties. The original design required us to acquire large scale land parcels and that was not possible in the traffic-heavy junction,” Ajay Seth, BMRCL Managing Director told BM.However, to mitigate user distress, Metro is planning to build a travelator and a foot-over-bridge.The Central Silk Board-KR Puram stretch will ultimately connect to the(Phase II-B) line and the changes in Silk Board stations will affect users switching between this line and the RV Road-Bommasandra one. Although both the lines pass close to each other at Central Silk Board, the two stations are going to be built separately, on different corners of the junction.While the station for the 18-km corridor is currently being built in the premises of Central Silk Board office, the station for the proposed 19-km line will be built on an empty plot of land, belonging to theThe revised design is completely different from what was originally planned. As per the previous plan, the two stations were proposed next to each other in Central Silk Board office premises. Similar to the Majestic Metro station and what’s proposed in MG Road, Jayadeva and RV Road Metro stations, passengers could easily change the Metro lines by moving to a different concourse without the need to come out of both the stations.Seth said the change in design would not cause much inconvenience to passengers. He added that BMRCL was also considering the proposal to link the travelator to the paid area of the stations so that the long-distance passengers do not have to buy tickets again. The travelator, Seth said, would also take into consideration the passengers who want to cross the busy road from one station to the other.The BMRCL might, however, attract criticism for changing the design, similar to the objections received for shifting the location ofstation afar from the railway station. As an after-thought solution, the Namma Metro officials promised to build a travelator to connect both the stations.Besides the regular passengers heading from South Bengaluru to the IT Hub in ORR and Whitefield, the new design is likely to affect airport-bound passengers too as the 19-km Phase II (A) project is proposed to link the airport. Changing the line at Silk Board could discourage air passengers especially those who travelling with heavy luggage.Other than two Metro stations, the BMRCL is also building loop flyovers at the busy junction, which is expected to be signal-free in the future. Tenders for the work, including the new Metro station, were floated recently with February-end as the last date to submit bids.