Title - Metro work drills hole in KSRTC pocket

The ongoing Namma Metro work at Majestic has badly hit the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). The corporation is losing over Rs32 lakh revenue per month due to the project.
To make way for the Namma Metro project, a major portion of the existing bus stand was demolished. As a result many shops, rented out by the corporation, were razed down. Prior to the starting of the Metro work, KSRTC had 72 shops and commercial establishments; now it has been reduced to around 30.
A KSRTC official said, "Prior to the starting of the Namma Metro project, the corporation was generating over Rs65 lakh revenue per month from shops and commercial establishments. After that we handed over a major portion of the land to BMRCL. They later demolished a major portion of the bus stand. As a result, we lost a good number of shops and refreshment establishments. From the latter alone we were generating around Rs6.5 lakh revenue per month."
"Majority of t he bus services from the Majestic were shifted to other parts of the city. For instance, Mysore and Kerala bound buses are being operated from Mysore Road satellite bus station, and Tamil Nadu bound buses from Shantinagar bus stand. Because of this shift, the number of passengers visiting Majestic bus stand has naturally come down," the official said.
He continued, "As contractors started losing customers, they appealed to the corporation to reduce the rent charged by us. The matter was placed before the board of the corporation and a decision was taken to reduce the rent. Providing land to BMRCL is a policy matter. Once the BMRCL starts the Namma Metro operations, there will be a real estate boom and KSRTC will benefit. Till then we have to wait."
KSRTC had handed over 20.23 acres of land for the Metro project. Once BMRCL completes its project, it will return 7.5 acres to KSRTC. After acquiring the land, BMRCL started tunnelling work with help of two tunnel boring ma chines. Both the machines are now proceeding towards the Vidhana Soudha station. The work on an interchange station at Majestic is also on.
BMRCL is constructing a temporary bus station, as it plans to acquire the main building of the existing bus station to carry out the work. Once it is ready, KSRTC will start operations from this bus station.