“We were handed the Plaza theatre land a bit late. As a result, it will take at least three to four months before people can alight and cross over from the MG Road station to the other side,” Sivasailam said.
Commuters will have to temporarily use the “emergency exit” for alighting from the Metro while travelling from Byappanahalli towards MG Road and then reach the concourse below the tracks. “They will have to use the same side of the station on MG Road to exit the Metro till the completion of the Plaza structure,” the BMRCL managing director said.
As regards the renewed legal tangle Plaza has found itself in, Sivasailam said the BMRCL “already has many PILs against it. We will take this too in our stride.”
The legal imbroglio over Plaza is yet to be cleared as a petition filed in December last year by Shravani Properties, owners of the Plaza theatre, challenging the acquisition and compensation, was adjourned by the High Court on Monday. The court has given time to the BMRCL and the KIADB to file their objections in the case.
The BMRCL is expected to construct railings for the protection of the High Court and Vidhana Soudha in the next two weeks. The Metro will go underground on this stretch till Majestic.
Commenting on the other stretches across the city, including Reach Two and Three, Sivasailam said nearly 60 per cent of the project was nearing completion for the rest of the phase.
After the completion of Reach One, the BMRCL is expected to open the next stretch, Reach Three and Three (A) by March-April 2012. The Reach Three and Reach Three (A) will be commissioned from Swastik to Yeshwanthpur and from Yeshwanthpur to Peenya bus depot, respectively.