Namma Metro

What an dichotomy of my city: It is absolutely OK to spend 75 lakhs on one day meeting (ABIDE), celebrating the lethargy, inefficiencies, no work culture of our government babus? Politicians patting on each others back for not doing anything meaningful to the city. NGO feeling proud to do the work that Babu's doesn't want to do, even though he/she gets paid for? But it is not OK to spend some 50 crores giving some decent amneities to the public, which have been denied for lats 60 years in the name of austerity and savings. But my MLA/MP houses are getting bigger, grandeur, swanky and plush with fleet of luxury cars. If it is OK to just make some bus stand like stations, then what are we cribbing and whining about BIAL not spending another 200 crores?

ssheragu Hello Devesh and Ashwin I have sent an e-mail to Mr. Sivasailam and it is appended below, as desired. Praja can follow it up To Mr. Sivasailam MD BMRC Dear Sir, I am a Praja member. We are given to understand that instead of spending Rs 12 crores on each Metro station and making them high tech, useful, posh, plush, aestehtically exquisite and each being a masterpiece and also as a tourist spot / attraction, you are planning to spend just Rs 1 crore on each station (to cut down costs) and are building dingy, dull, stations. These stations when built wil end up as nothing but as third clas waiting rooms, within a short time of their opening. You can very well understand that we, Bangaloreans and you too, deserve good & posh stations. Further you are not going to save much as it is going to be only 1% or 2% of the total cost. Finally, a high tech sttaion as a luxurious masterpiece will earn revenue more than its investment cost in a very short time and it will keep on generating wealth for Metro. So we, at Praja, on behalf of all of Bangalore, request you to stick to the original plan of spending Rs 12 crores or more for each station and build exquisite stations for the utility of the public and for the benfit of the tourism department and never construct Rs 1 crore stations, which will soon become antiquated. We trust you will genuinely consider the views & aspirations of the Bangalore citizens and provide us quality, exquisite & useful metro stations. Thanking you in anticipation Srinath Heragu

Who/what are we saving this money for? This will end up like the BIA case. Save a few crores and end up with a lot handwringing and there will be a "reopen MG road the way it was before metro" campaign. There will be efforts on RTI from Praja, a few sarkari commissions and then we will put up with another crap pice of infrastructure every body ends up hating. Save money by finishing early and not getting into cost escalations. Save money by reducing input costs. Save money by enhancing quality during construction. Save money by negotiating better contracts with supplier etc. not by giving us crappy looking metro in our downtown. Look how hurriedly they approved their crappy designs. Only shows all the design competitions were an eye wash.

I am confused now. I saw the RFP/tenders for 3 more stations in papers today - the cost mentioned for 3 stations is Rs 111 crores. Whats this 10 crore and 1 crore Deccan Herald article is talking about?

We are clearly mis-informed here, or those tenders are inflating costs.

I will pull those BMRCL tenders out from papers (scan) and put up a separate post to express my cost confusion.

To me, these stations are only as good as their utility as exchange point between busses (BMTC) and trains (metro). Quick entry from one mode and exit into another - thats one thing that must be designed right.

The rest of the jazz can be and will be debated, but honestly, is a distraction right now as it makes us shift focus from utility aspects. If funding is a problem, jazz can be compromized, utility not. If there is spare money waiting to be spent, lets use that to buy/acquire more land around these stations to get get bus-hold and wait areas on both sides of stations, or to design catchment area and redo the bus routes.

certainly I would like to have a N Foster landmark. But with a 6000 crore budget, I would rather that more money be spent on extending routes than putting up landmarks. That to me is more vital to the city. What I think we should get from BMRCL is a few detailed images of the station, its facilities and what we can expect from it that will make easy of access worthwile and how it will be different from the sterotyped spit-marked corners! IMO (Again), keet the aesthetics simple, and we can build upon it as money comes in. Plain walls, can later make way for murals...etc. The basic straucture cen be built upon by pvt partners later on. But with the given situation in Bangalore we need a working metro, and we need it fast!

To give an immediate and visceral understanding of how much the design quality has degraded, I have pasted pictures of the original and the revised concepts for 3 stations in reach 1. The difference in aesthetic quality is obvious and jarring.

Ulsoor Station (original)

Ulsoor Station (revised)

 

Trinity Circle Station (original)

 

Trinity Circle Station (revised)

 

CMH Road Station (original)

 

CMH Road Station (revised)

 

For stations in other segments (Reach 2 etc) there were no designs published earlier so no comparison is possible, but the quality is in line with the revised concepts above. A PWD/Public Sector aesthetic that is a hangover from the 70's.

We may not be a China to afford Norman Foster, but all the above (original) concepts were by prominent local firms and are world class.

There is more to it than exploring why have they deviated from the original designs... Atleast in this case (Metro) we have a before (wow) and after (nmnnnn) designs to compare and question the concerned authorities who are developing our metro network - unlike in the case of our airport. I think when we send a letter to them or meet them in person we have to make a strong case and go with some handouts to compare designs so that we get the right answers. Personally I think Bangalore deserves great architectural stations like the old ones were. In-course of time even those who appose this will start admiring them because they will be a functional piece of art, accessible and sufficient that adds character to the city.

I just noticed that the swanky older looking Station (CMH Road) was designed by RITES Architects. W.r.t the letter that Mr Srinath Heragu got from BMRCL, it was stated that "Professionals from RITES who are designing the station and its facilities have strived hard to provide a design that is pleasing to the eye as a landmark in MG Road and Trinity circle." So the architects havent changed, only the stations have. This I would like to find out - why?

While it will be terrible to have a PWD style METRO station particularly on MG road, can we atleast ensure that they have taken care of all the utility aspects? Why not ask them to display scale models of the stations, as also of say 50 M radius precincts, bringing out clearly all aspects of pedestrian and vehicular traffic movements, and such other details?

When I recently went to the Shantinagar TTMC, to help my niece catch a Volvo bus to BIAL, I came upon what I thought was a major short-coming in the design. The car parking is on the first-floor. After parking, to get down to the ground level, the only option available is to walk down the ramp, up which you just drove in. Even as we were walking down the ramp, with our bits of luggage, there was a couple walking up with little children on tow, carrying loads of Big Bazaar shopping bags in addition. Just about then, an SUV came roaring up the ramp, causing a bit of a squeeze in the narrow passage, obviously not designed for this mixed traffic, sending the children and the parents into a bit of a panic. All in all, situation cut out for a disaster waiting to happen.

PWD's (as also most government organisation's) idea of architecture is to build a flashy (not necessarily tasteful) facade. It's time the organisation itself is wound up.

Now, the old jail complex became the 'Freedom Park' (yet to be completed) following a fairly transparent ideas/ architectural competition. With that kind of a precedent set, I think we should now be demanding that all future developments relating to public places should go through a similar process.

Prem Chandavarkar, a leading architect of Bangalore, had some time back suggested that we should have something on the lines of what is envisaged at http://www.designtrust.org/home/home.html, in Bangalore also.
 

Muralidhar Rao

After a few days of using the stockholm metro (aka tunnelbana) the feedback is their architecture sucks, their stations use tiles on the walls and pillars worse than the ones we have in our bathrooms. Flooring is plain large grain mosaic (like the ones when our houses graduated from red oxide flooring). Some stations dont have escalators, some have only to go up but ALL have 1 elevator atleast. Guess what I dont stand there long enough to notice because I have never had to wait more than 5 mins for anytrain. max 8 to 10 mins for far reaching locations. I know exactly when a train arrives and it does exactly on time. Every station has buses just outside which have never failed to arrive on time. There is no station I cant get a bus outside. The passes are shared between buses and trains etc... in all one of the most effecient. Of the few metros I have used (London, Boston, Singapore, Stockholm) Singapore is on top followed by stockholm. Disclaimer - This does not indicate Bangalore have to build sick looking buildings in the name of functionality. We are better than these guys

Vasanth, On KR Rd, near Nat'l college, the Metro is elevated. It emerges out of the underground tunnel just past Shivshankar circle, when it starts ramping up. In way of station/s, all trees will be chopped down - probably because they interfere with the wider elevated decks that are required at stations. These trees were probably in way of KR Rd station. If not, BMRC must be questioned as to why they have been removed.