Gowda set to derail Bangalore’s Metro

On a day when the Delhi cabinet cleared Phase II of Metro, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, whose party JD-S is in a coalition with the...

On a day when the Delhi cabinet cleared Phase II of Metro, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, whose party JD-S is in a coalition with the Congress in Karnataka, was chipping away at Bangalore’s dream of getting its own metro project started.

The Public Investment Board is expected to approve the project on June 15 and work is likely to begin July-end. Gowda has now written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, asking for a review. In 2003, the estimated cost was Rs 5,000 cr which has gone up to Rs 6,000 cr now. Any delay will prove costly.

Gowda, JD-S supremo, has described the Metro as a ‘‘ruinously expensive project, which would guzzle power, take enornmous time to build and play havoc with the lives of citizens.’’ He is pitching for light rail and mono rail.

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Chief Minister N Dharam Singh has ruled out scrapping of the project. In fact, a team of Japan Bank for International Corporation is in the city now to review the progress of the project. The Bank is one of the external funding agencies of the project.

About Rs 8 crore has been spent at the planning stage. With PTI

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