Now that the final central government clearance for the Metro rail project has come, it's time to ask if it will really bring Bangalore back from the brink? Or if the toothpaste has come out of the tube just too much for it to be put back? Will the 33-km line see the light of day in five years or will it end up becoming a showpiece, something to show the world that we tried to save Bangalore?
Will a population that has seen the joys of personal transport ever hop on to the Metro which, in Delhi, is one of the more expensive forms of public transport? And most important of all, will the Metro be used by everybody including the rich and powerful of Bangalore, like mayor Michael Bloomberg in New York, or will it be something that the moneyed would want the middle and lower classes to use so that the roads are free for their cars, Cadillacs and convertibles? Speak.
The Metro will never save Bangalore. What we will see over the next five years or more is a ready excuse for politicians and IT chiefs to show that something is being done. Bangalore has been killed once and for all. The Metro is just an artificial respiratory system so that the Narayana Murthys of the world can keep their consciences clean for what they have done to a truly beautiful city in the name of IT and development.
I certainly hope the Metro is better planned than our wonderful flyovers. Both the Richmond Circle Flyover and the BTM Flyover were designed for traffic in one direction and then once they were built, traffic was let in from the opposite direction.
The think tank of experts who came up with the design need to be given promotions and more money.
Of course one can only imagine the chaos while this is being built.
Maybe nows a good time to move out of Bangalore. With lots of people moving out, the traffic congestion will automatically come down.. :-)
The metro never save bangalore and infrastucture is not good in bangalore, no chance to save bangalore
Metro can perhaps save Gowda government from the barbs of Murthy and his ilk..unless it is planned with a 20 year vision, it will be a sheer waste of public money and result in untold miseries to people who will have to live with uprooted trees, dug up roads, longer roads to motor until the Metro sees the light of the day ( decade? )
Metro does bring back the glory of Brand Bangalore. Metro is for all class of people like in New Delhi. Hopefully scalability is taken in to consideration while designing. I would suggest a future metro line running along a Outer Ring Road, connecting white field, Electronic Ciy, Mysore Road, K R Puram. Long way to go ………
Metro will not save us from Bangalore’s traffic hell, because so called I grade citizen’s ( IT people) o Bangalore will never use this system and the common people are not required this system. Bangalore has attracted everybody accross the world not because of its beauty or weather it’s just by the well cultured nature of the kannadigas. The only way for the IT people is to locate other small towns like shivamogga, Hubli, Chikkamagalur etc and make thier own townships
Vijay from kahaLe group has written about Metro rail
> >Friends
> >Let me put my other thoughts to rest and assume that
> >the Blore Metro is all for development and is all that
> >is required to turn Bangalore into a paradise.
> >
> >But one thing that has started to make me fret, is the
> >name ‘SHREEDHARAN’.He is the brain behind ambitious
> >projects like the konkan railway and the Metro Rail in
> >Delhi and is again the chairman of this project.This
> >man has merit, there is no doubt about this.
> >
> > But there is another cause for my fidgety. Mr
> >Shreedharan is a staunch & a quintessential, 24-carat
> >malayaLi. If you want to witness his loyalty and the
> >services he has done to malayalam, I would implore you
> >to look at the people recruited to the konkan railways
> >in the length of line in dakshina and uttara kannada
> >districts. It is nearly 100% malayaLi.It was made a
> >rule that atleast one member of the family of the
> >people who lost their lands during the lying of lanes,
> >should be offered a job in the konkan railways, in
> >accordance with their academic qualification. But this
> >never crystallised, thanks to the baddie,Sreedharan.If
> >you want detailed report on the stats, etc, you can
> >refer to ‘Taranga’ which had published a detailed
> >article in mukhapuTa a few yrs back(I frankly don’t
> >remember the sanchike).The report clearly articulates
> >the villianous role played by this great engineer. My
> >friends hailing from a tiny hamlets along the route
> >often relate to me about the influx of malayaLis into
> >the village after the project started. Not only were
> >the people recruited keraLites but also the labourers,
> >most of whom did not leave even after the project was
> >complete.The advertisement for recruitment to konkan
> >railways WAS PUBLISHED ONLY IN MALAYALI NEWSPAPERS
> >
> >And now that the project would be flagged off from
> >spetember, I HAVE CONCRETE INFORMATION from my
> >relatives who are higher up in the govt that
> >SREEDHARAN HAS STARTED TO RECRUIT PEOPLE FROM HIS
> >STATE FOR THE PROJECT!!
> >
> >We dont want a repeat of the konkan railways exercise
> >again do we? We have enough malayalis already in
> >Blore.
> >
> >Malayalis are not afraid to hide their parochial side
> >when it matters..It is very well known that Shashi
> >Tharoor(Im a fan of his writings :) ) won the race for
> >Indian Contender for the Sec Gen of the UN because of
> >the backing of MKS Narayanan(Nat sec advisor), both of
> >whom are Malayalis.
> >
> >Regards
> >Vijay