Bangalore's swanky metro rail to start on Oct 20

This is a dream come true for people in Bangalore. The IT capital's much awaited Bangalore metro rail service, 'Namma Metro' will start operations from 20 October 2011.

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The ambitious Rs 6000 crore (Rs 60 billion) Bangalore Metro project will put an end to traffic woes in the city, making travel much easier and comfortable for commuters.

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The Metro Rail will ease the traffic in the eastern parts of Bangalore city. The Reach 1 which connects Baiyappanahalli to MG Road will be inaugurated by the Union Minister for Urban Development, Kamal Nath.

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Namma Metro will help reduce traffic in some of the busiest roads like the Old Madras Road, Whitefield and ITPB.

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Though the speed on the 9-kilometre stretch between Baiyappanahalli and MG Road was scheduled to be 75 km per hour, it has now been reduced to 68 km per hour.

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A ride from Baiyappanahalli to MG Road will cost Rs 15. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation expects least 20,000 to 25,000 people to travel on the inaugural day.

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Around 20,000 smart cards have already been sold, besides 3,000 tickets.

The number of passengers expected to travel on the metro everyday is estimated 16.10 lakh by 2021.

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Each train will consist of three coaches (2.88 m wide) to start with. The train can accommodate a total of 1000 persons.

The trains will be Wi-Fi enabled, so passengers can use laptops on the move.

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The train will have light weight modern coaches. Later, it will run six coaches - the carrying capacity of a six coach train will be 2068 passengers.

Passengers will also be able to communicate with the staff through a speaker system in case of an emergency.

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The coaches with stainless steel covering are air-conditioned and have automated doors.

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The East-West corridor will be 18.10 kilometres long, starting from Baiyappanahalli and terminating at Mysore Road terminal, going via Swami Vivekananda Road, Indiranagar, Halasuru, Trinity, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Cricket Stadium, Vidhana Soudha, Central College, Majestic, City Railway Station, Magadi Road, Hosahalli, Vijayanagar and Deepanjali Nagar.

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The 24.20 kilometres North-South corridor will begin at Nagadandra and terminate at Puttenahalli going via Mahalakshmi, Rajajinagar, Kuvempu Road, Malleswaram, Swastik, Majestic, Chikpete, City Market, KR Road, Lalbagh, South End Circle,Jayanagar and Puttenahalli.

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Out of the 42.30 km, 8.822 km. will be underground near City Railway Station, Vidhana Soudha, Majestic and City Market and most of the rest will be elevated.

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The construction work for Phase-1 of the project was scheduled to start in 2005 but was delayed as government changed in Karnataka in February 2006.

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The project's feasibility became a bone of contention. Finally, on 25 April 2006 the Central approved the project.

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Initially, it was budgeted at more than Rs 5,400 crore ($1.2 billion). Later, it was revised to Rs 11,609 crore ($2.59 billion) crore for phase-I.

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Vijayanagar station.

Indiranagar station.

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Lalbagh station.

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Srirampura station.

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RV road terminal.

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Deepanjali Nagar station.

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Sandal soap factory station

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Trinity station.

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Magadi Road station.

Click NEXT to see the Metro rail route...

Covering a span of 70 kilometres, phase II is an extension of all the four Reaches (Reach 1 to 4) and is expected to reduce road traffic by 35 per cent.

Additionally phase II will also have two independent lines – one from Jayanagar to Electronic City and the second from Nagavara to IIM-B, a total of 21 km of which around 15 km will be underground route.

The estimated project cost for Phase II is around Rs 25,000 crore ($5.58 billion)