VANISHING GREENERY: People watch as machinery get into place for levelling work on the promenade on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Bangalore on Sunday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Machines rumbled into one of Bangalore's most scenic roads on Sunday and began digging the earth. Thus started the work on the Metro Rail project, an ambitious plan to decongest roads and move people faster from one end to another. Yes, in another couple of days you cannot take a stroll down the lovely promenade because it simply won't be there.

Traffic and pedestrians stopped by to watch the commencement of work on Mahatma Gandhi Road for the Rs. 6,400-crore project.

The stretch of road from the Anil Kumble Circle to G.K. Vale has been cordoned off. Bulldozers smashed into the promenade, removing huge chunks of earth in a levelling operation.

They will dig till they hit rock on which the foundation for the columns of the viaduct will be erected.

This is part of work of the Reach One of the Metro Rail between the Chinnaswamy Cricket Stadium and Byappanahalli. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), which is executing the project, has given the contract for the 7-km viaduct to Navayuga Engineering Company. Simultaneously, work has started near the Epidemic Diseases Hospital on Old Madras Road.

Unlike as on CMH Road, traffic was not much affected here; nor was it diverted with the authorities barricading a portion of the autorickshaw lane.

The median will be shifted by a metre towards the shops to facilitate smooth flow of traffic. Several people visited the promenade to have a last look though BMRCL says it will be restored, but at a lower elevation, once the work is complete.

But that does not reassure many people. For example, Girish, who works for a multinational electronics company, his wife, Uma, and his two children had come all the way from Sanjaynagar.

He was shooting pictures of the promenade on its last legs. "We want to preserve these pictures. I don't have the hope that the promenade will be restored to its original form," he said. Ms. Uma pointed to their three and six-year-olds and said: "We also used to come to the promenade as kids and go to Lakeview for ice-cream."

Anand S. Sharan, a photographer, brought his students for a field training.

"For years, the promenade has been my favourite location to bring the trainees." There is a move to ban parking on M.G. Road.

This is of particular concern to the manager of India Coffee House, every true-blue Bangalorean's favourite hangout.

He expects a fall in customers if the ban comes into force, "though our customers will walk down to this 49-year-old joint."

But B.K. Ramalingaiah, who works here, is upbeat: "You have to bear with such minor inconvenience as Metro Rail will provide relief to the burgeoning number of vehicles."

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