This might be a bit alarmist but this is a report I read earlier today. It does not seem too surprising given that the BMRCL got around to finding digging specialists after starting to dig..
bangalorebuzz.blogspot.com/2009/10/metro-could-bring-high-court-down.html#links
Though given that nobody pays any attention to what the high court says anymore perhaps it wont be such a loss. Its seems strange that while the Supreme court has said that all temples/mosque/religious buildings built illegally or encroaching on govt land can be demolished the BBMP/BMRCL etc. dont touch them - for example, the Maruthi temple in Vijaynagar causes a great deal of inconvenience to the Metro work. But trees, which are protected by the high court, are hacked with impunity..
Ramesh
Comments
Blasts eh? Not TBM
I though they will use a tunnel boring machine and hence blasts will not happen? Not right? Or is it for the station?
My understanding is that one
My understanding is that one problem in Bangalore is that the there is a lot of granite below the surface - which is what has made making the metro underground everywhere less feasable. My father says that before Vidhan Soudha was built there was a huge rock there - perhaps like the rock at Lalbaug, which they blew to make Vidhan Soudha. This suggests that the substructure is solid granite - which perhaps is difficult to bore through and has to be blasted. This also means that the shockwaves caused by the blasts would carry..., as the article suggests.
Having said all this is possible that the article is alarmist and and exaggeration of the reality. Though as I said, I wont be too surprised if BMRCL has not considered such aspects of the construction.
Ramesh
why trees are cut while the shrine survives
"Its seems strange that while the Supreme court has said that all temples/mosque/religious buildings built illegally or encroaching on govt land can be demolished the BBMP/BMRCL etc. dont touch them - for example, the Maruthi temple in Vijaynagar causes a great deal of inconvenience to the Metro work. But trees, which are protected by the high court, are hacked with impunity.."
I think we all know the answer to why the shrine survives but the tree does not. Cutting down trees does not lead to riots whereas you know what would happen if anything happened to the shrine. How I wish a tree was the most religiously sacred thing in our country.