Bengaluru metro work: No traffic on 1-km stretch of Bannerghatta Road for a year

Bengaluru: A key stretch of the arterial Banneghatta Road in southcentral Bengaluru will be closed to traffic for a year starting April 1 to facilitate the construction of the underground Lakkasandra metro station on the Pink Line. 

On Saturday, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) announced that the roughly one-kilometre stretch between Mico Signal and Anepalya Junction would be off-limits to vehicles from Dairy Circle. 

Vehicles moving on Bannerghatta Road and headed towards Anepalya Junction will have to take a right turn at Mico Signal — near the back gate of Mico Bosch Industries — and proceed on New Mico Road to reach Adugodi Signal and onto Hosur Road. 

There will be no change for traffic moving in the other direction — from Anepalya Junction towards Dairy Circle. Anepalya Junction is where traffic from Bannerghatta Road and Hosur Road merges near the Christian cemetery. 

Vehicles headed towards Shanthinagar from Dairy Circle should turn left at 7th Main Road, Wilson Garden. 

The traffic diversion is to facilitate the construction of the south-side entrance of the Lakkasandra metro station. 

Meanwhile, tunnelling on the Pink Line has been completed except for a 939-metre twin section between KG Halli and Nagavara. 

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Rudra achieved a breakthrough in late October last year after boring a 718-metre stretch from Lakkasandra to Langford Road. 

The Lakkasandra metro station will have two entrances (north and south) besides a subway to Bosch Limited. 

A senior BMRCL official said the station's overall civil work was nearly 70 per cent complete. The bottom slab has been constructed at the north-side entrance while the concourse slab is 70 per cent complete. 

The official added that work on the south-side entrance has begun with the bottom slab being about 10 per cent complete. 

Work to lay tracks at Lakkasandra is about to start as the workers are shifting and welding the rails, the official said. 

The station work is faster at Langford (80 per cent) and Dairy Circle (75 per cent) stations, according to the official. 

The 21.26-km Pink Link, connecting Kalena Agrahara to Nagavara over 18 stations, will open next year.