[binand]

Originally Posted by am1m

Does anyone know what the actual reason was?

The most plausible story I've heard is involves the complexity of making the metro line cross over all the stacked infra elements that lie between Baiyappanahalli and KR Puram metro stations (basically the road interchange between ORR and OMR, the railway spaghetti involving lines from 5 different directions and all grade-separated rail-road crossings like the hanging bridge).

[black_rider]

Originally Posted by am1m

Does anyone know what the actual reason was?

Skyscrapercity forum has a detailed discussion on this. Since metro had to cross a railway line, permission was needed from Railways and an approval of the span design as well. The forum says this span design was changed multiple times. Finally an Open Web Girder (OWG) design was approved by Railways and it took quite some time to build it, and launch it over the operational line.

[anandhsub]

I have also read on Twitter there were issues with transfer of railway land that was needed for the metro, especially for road widening which added to the delays in the stretch around KR Pura.

[DetectiveMiles]

Originally Posted by ShreyG

Election buzz in the air it seems, what with the PM coming down every now and then to inaugurate infra projects (I don't remember him coming to inaugurate the green or purple lines, but the 8 station Whitefield line is of utmost importance ), newly tarred roads everywhere and the BTP actually manning traffic and not just standing there taking pictures of violators the don't fancy.
Come June, true state of affairs will come to the forefront it seems. Not a pessimist, but this is the sort of pattern I have seen staying in the city for close to a decade now. Fingers crossed its not the case this time.

Actullay, the Metro Line/section openings have been done by various dignitaries on different ocassions while opening the Namma Metro sections. Helps get some tar on the road

few examples.
Metro phase-1 https://www.newindianexpress.com/cit...8-1614155.html
Underground strech opening: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/51971933.cms

[am1m]

Originally Posted by binand

...the railway spaghetti involving lines from 5 different directions and all grade-separated rail-road crossings like the hanging bridge).

Originally Posted by black_rider

Since metro had to cross a railway line, permission was needed from Railways and an approval of the span design as well.

Originally Posted by anandhsub

I have also read on Twitter there were issues with transfer of railway land that was needed for the metro,

Thanks guys, thought it might have something to do with the Railways. Unfortunately, IR seems to always have issues with anything the Metro wants to do, and sorting out anything to do with IR-Metro co-ordination always seems to take much longer than necessary. Even something as simple as pedestrian over bridges connecting the Majestic railway platform and the KSR Metro station took such a long time to complete. For a similar one at Yeshwantpur, construction has only just started after multiple delays. Wonder why- it benefits Indian Railways passengers more, having a metro feeding into railway stations with seamless access.

[airguitar]

Originally Posted by am1m

That is hilarious!

What's even funnier is how the Metro PR is attempting to claim that this stretch is now 'complete' (barring this small section). And the media is just printing whatever they churn out. Even if it's a gap of a foot, what is the use of claiming the metro has now "reached Whitefield". (Technically yes- but not connected to the rest of the system!)

Anyway, waiting till it really connects that part of town, will make a huge difference.

I planned a trip from WFD to Cubbon Park for the Bangalore Habba and was shocked to be told at the counter that the train terminates at Krishnarajapura. No where was it clear that the connectivity to Byappanahalli wasn't done. As it is, I still can't digest the fact that the most blocked/trafficky areas ( including when the govt knew that all/most IT companies were relocating to ORR over the last few years ), ORR and WFD, would get metros 12 years after the initial inauguration ( 14 years perhaps for ORR when it is opened ). Same thing happens on where B-TRACK, or traffic offense monitoring cameras, white topping/quality of roads round the year etc get done. Old bangalore areas always get priority.

Originally Posted by black_rider

Skyscrapercity forum has a detailed discussion on this. Since metro had to cross a railway line, permission was needed from Railways and an approval of the span design as well. The forum says this span design was changed multiple times. Finally an Open Web Girder (OWG) design was approved by Railways and it took quite some time to build it, and launch it over the operational line.

Not clear where the metro has to cross over the railwayline : are you referring to the one Bangalore - Hosur rail line at Benniganahalli ?

Also, as far as the overall picture goes : https://themetrorailguy.com/2022/03/...phase-3-plans/ : why is this already looking so messy ? is there a method to the phased madness here that I'm missing ? Feels like random criscrossing of metro routes.

[am1m]

Originally Posted by airguitar

I planned a trip from WFD to Cubbon Park for the Bangalore Habba and was shocked to be told at the counter that the train terminates at Krishnarajapura. No where was it clear that the connectivity to Byappanahalli wasn't done.

Very unfortunate and I can understand why that happened. I live in the general area, so it has always been obvious that that section would never get done in time for the planned opening, even the multiple pushed dates. So this split/part opening. But the way the media were reporting it, it seemed like the metro was ready to serve Whitefield with headlines along the lines of 'Metro to soon bring relief to thousands of commuters in Whitefield' etc. etc.

The media has been consistently awful when it comes to metro progress reporting, right from the start. I remember one headline in Deccan Herald way back before even the very first stretch opened that completely misrepresented the progress. The ironic thing was, the DH office was right outside the MG road station construction works. They just had to look outside their window to see what they were printing wrt how much progress was being made was obviously untrue back then! Till now all the press seems to do is print whatever the metro PR gives them without any fact checking. Unless you follow something like the Metro forum on sites like skyscrapercity, it's hard to get a really accurate picture of where things stand.

(Which is why a lot of people still believe that the ORR Metro will really start by 2025! ) (Note: I'm not against the metro at all, I'm totally pro-metro. But I despair about the lack of accurate estimates and information to the public.)

[Acharya]

Originally Posted by airguitar

Not clear where the metro has to cross over the railwayline : are you referring to the one Bangalore - Hosur rail line at Benniganahalli ?

Metro line crosses over the railway line between KR Puram and Byappanahalli. There have been many news articles on Open Web Girder design (Link1 & Link2).

Engineering complexity involved in the overhead Metro crossing over the Chennai-Bangalore rail track, has been the prime accused for this delay. Of course, the usual bureaucracy of government departments, especially when it comes to cross department collaboration, would have added to the hold up.

On the positive side, the speed at which Silk board to KR Puram metro work is progressing, is nothing short of miracle for city of Bangalore. Hope, they maintain the speed and make Metro operational in 2024.

- An Eternal Optimist

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by Acharya

On the positive side, the speed at which Silk board to KR Puram metro work is progressing, is nothing short of miracle for city of Bangalore. Hope, they maintain the speed and make Metro operational in 2024.

- An Eternal Optimist

Totally agree with this. I travel to office 1 day a week and can see progress every week. The best part is how quickly they levelled the road to allow traffic under the completed pillars.

Compared to the metro work in BTM stretch, this has been very well executed. On the BTM stretch, that entire road is in a miserable state for the last 3-4 years.

[srvm]

Originally Posted by Acharya

Metro line crosses over the railway line between KR Puram and Byappanahalli. There have been many news articles on Open Web Girder design .....

GMaps in satellite view shows that the Purple line metro never crosses the Chennai-Bangalore railway line between Baiyappanahalli and KR Puram. Metro line stays south of the railway line.

However, metro does cross Baiyappanahalli/Banaswadi-Hosur railway line near Baiyappanahalli Auxiliary Bypass cabin.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Acharya

On the positive side, the speed at which Silk board to KR Puram metro work is progressing, is nothing short of miracle for city of Bangalore. Hope, they maintain the speed and make Metro operational in 2024.

- An Eternal Optimist

Very true. My office windows face the ORR and the growth seen in the pillars over recent weeks/months is a complete 180deg as compared to last year. Let's see how long this good run continues.

[krishnakumar]

Originally Posted by Acharya

On the positive side, the speed at which Silk board to KR Puram metro work is progressing, is nothing short of miracle for city of Bangalore. Hope, they maintain the speed and make Metro operational in 2024.

- An Eternal Optimist

As much as I love the optimism and hope by some miracle it comes true, I doubt if it'll be anywhere near operational even by 2026.

The Whitefield-KR Puram purple-line extension was in a near completed state for ~2 years (I'm referring to the one opened yesterday and not even the section connecting Baiyyappanahalli).

In Aug'21, moved into a society which is bang in front of the metro line and a metro station. It was post COVID, construction was full swing, traffic was much lower and the entire structure was fully finished and they were starting the interior works. It took them over 1.5 years from a near completed state to becoming operation.

Building the structure is the easiest and I'm saying this as a civil engineer. The Internal Finishing, HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Cooling) and MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) works are painstakingly difficult and nuanced with lot of items to be imported, tenders to be called and so on. Not to mention the amount of testing and clearances required.

The yellow line is surely to get completed structurally by 2024, however, to complete all the stations and making it operational (and for such a long line) is going to take a lot of time! By best guess is end of 2026 and that is if the current pace continues. Realistically, we are only going to see this line start functioning by 2027-2028.

I hope I'm proven wrong!

[Rajeevraj]

Originally Posted by Acharya

Engineering complexity involved in the overhead Metro crossing over the Chennai-Bangalore rail track, has been the prime accused for this delay. Of course, the usual bureaucracy of government departments, especially when it comes to cross department collaboration, would have added to the hold up.

On the positive side, the speed at which Silk board to KR Puram metro work is progressing, is nothing short of miracle for city of Bangalore. Hope, they maintain the speed and make Metro operational in 2024.
- An Eternal Optimist

Originally Posted by srvm

GMaps in satellite view shows that the Purple line metro never crosses the Chennai-Bangalore railway line between Baiyappanahalli and KR Puram. Metro line stays south of the railway line.

However, metro does cross Baiyappanahalli/Banaswadi-Hosur railway line near Baiyappanahalli Auxiliary Bypass cabin.

Yes, it crosses over the Baiyappanahalli - Hosur line. And unfortunately the same thing awaits the ORR line also. The ORR Metro line crosses the Hosur Railway line at the Rainbow Hospital area after Marathahalli. If you notice, the spans before and after it are almost ready, but there is nothing happening on both sides of the railway track that goes over the ORR. There was one article that said this is also getting into a loop with railways asking to change design etc as the Hosur line is getting doubled and there is also the proposal of suburban rail. So the metro span should go over 4 tracks out of which today only one is there and the design was planned around covering 2 lines.

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

As much as I love the optimism and hope by some miracle it comes true, I doubt if it'll be anywhere near operational even by 2026.

The yellow line is surely to get completed structurally by 2024, however, to complete all the stations and making it operational (and for such a long line) is going to take a lot of time! By best guess is end of 2026 and that is if the current pace continues. Realistically, we are only going to see this line start functioning by 2027-2028.

I hope I'm proven wrong!

Hope you are proven wrong, but I agree with you. The station work is not really started anywhere and as you rightly said, structure completion can be done very fast. The only plus point is that until now, in all other sections, the structure work itself was painfully slow. On ORR at least that part has been taken care off. 2026-27 is my estimate too.

Not sure if they can prioritize 3-4 stations and get the line running as the 2 ends will anyway be ready. I recall Dubai Metro used to follow that approach. They opened lines with few stations ready and then kept adding as it got done.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Hope you are proven wrong, but I agree with you. The station work is not really started anywhere and as you rightly said, structure completion can be done very fast. The only plus point is that until now, in all other sections, the structure work itself was painfully slow. On ORR at least that part has been taken care off. 2026-27 is my estimate too.

Not sure if they can prioritize 3-4 stations and get the line running as the 2 ends will anyway be ready.

Originally Posted by krishnakumar

The yellow line is surely to get completed structurally by 2024, however, to complete all the stations and making it operational (and for such a long line) is going to take a lot of time! By best guess is end of 2026 and that is if the current pace continues. Realistically, we are only going to see this line start functioning by 2027-2028.

In addition to the structural works, what is also important is the availability of depots and rolling stock. For the ORR metro, it would use the Baiyyapanahalli depot which will be remodelled to suit its needs while the existing rakes for purple line will be shifted to Kadugodi Depot. If so, then the line shall be ready to use at least from KR Pura till Rainbow hospital. As usual the bureaucratic mess with railways exist and they seem to be going safe and demanding space for four tracks to pass through(which is another unrealistic expectation) That means another open web girder which on the ORR is impossible to launch without shutting down the entire ORR.

For the Yellow line, provided rolling stock and depot is ready soon, we can see operations until Udupi garden by next year for sure. Its only Jayadeva hospital exchange that will be a blocker. But that anyway is almost the end of the line and people could make use of this line between Silk board and Bommasandra.

The last and worst performer will be the Pink line. While the underground stretch is having good pace as well as the Kothanur Depot, the elevated stretch is stuck at snails pace. This will make it impossible even for partial opening of the underground stretch.

[itwasntme]

Thank God for small mercies! KRP choke-point to be widened.

https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/cit...b-1204519.html