Metro blues continue…

If there were a hundred reasons for the citizens of Bangalore to frown upon the ongoing metro work, I just found another!

Just yesterday in class, discussions as to how the metro rail works were faring was on and it all boiled down to the most essential problem – traffic, quite but naturally. Some call it the most overrated topic at present but also imperative in more ways than one. Hard to believe, but it took me over an hour to reach Rajajinagar from Malleswaram! (For those who are not aware of these areas and their distances; Malleshwaram and Rajajinagar are residential areas situated in the north of Bangalore and they are at a distance of about 4 kilometres!)

The auto rickshaw driver couldn’t hide his frustration and so couldn’t I! He made the following observations and they did make lots of sense:

1. The number of vehicles on road are just increasing and by 2012 which is supposedly the deadline for the Metro rails to begin functioning, the number is sure not going to decrease. Nobody is going to sell his vehicle and commute by these trains.
2. The Volvo buses running in the city currently have seen a decline in the number of commuters. By paying an amount more than the fares of normal buses; say they do not get a seat to sit, why would they want to take the Volvo then? They rather pay 5 or 10 bucks lesser and travel comfortably in our autos.

Travelling comfortably is what he claims and vouches for; safety I surely can’t vouch for! Anyway that apart, what he said did make sense to a large extent.

With all the collapses witnessed, Bangalore is sure apprehensive about the entire project. Moreover, my lecturer informed us that recently a study was conducted where it was found that the authorities in-charge were not even aware of who actually initiated the idea of having the Metro Rail in the city! Yes, we have the developers and the planning body, but under whose initiation, they were not aware of.

The 101st reason I was talking about came in the form of my domestic help. She lives in an area where the Metro work has to begin. The authorities have allocated houses for them in another locality and they are to move out within a deadline.

My domestic help is just 24 years old with 2 children; the boy who is 5 and is studying in an English medium school and a girl who is just 2.5 years old. It is a matter of pride that at 24, an uneducated woman with 2 growing children and an alcoholic husband is working really hard so that her kids can afford an English medium school!

Many domestic helps are sending their children to schools run by the government and due to lack of facilities, lethargy from the authorities’ side and so on, most kids eventually drop out and take to other odd jobs. But this lady from the very same community is ready to spend that extra hour, stretch that extra muscle to earn that extra rupee to send her kids to a good school. And here comes a railway project asking her to relocate.

Yes, one may say just ask her to get her children admitted to another school in the new locality. But we are all aware of how our system functions and I do not need to elaborate. It is not about questioning the system right now, but I really pity the poor woman. Her alcoholic husband and mother-in-law have absolutely no issues in relocating, but she fears the near future of her kids and rightly so. She says she’s rather look for a house in the same area again and pay rent by renting out the house which the government has allocated for her family.

It is first of all rare to see this section of our society coming forward and trying to brighten their kids’ future and now a project as this is just turning out to be a hurdle. Like adding feathers to one’s cap in terms of achievements, the ‘Namma Metro’ project is adding many feathers for the wrong reasons.