Jan 2010 Cover-1 - Apurva Boseapurvabose.com/apurvabose/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Metro-Sta… · for the Bengaluru metro rail with the proposal of two double line corridors: East-West

An Introduction tothe Bengaluru MetroIndia is fast approachingUrbanisation - with rapid growth inpopulation and in an attempt todecongest crowds, metros in majorcities of the country are springingup. With Kolkata and Delhi already

experiencing the benefits of rapidtransit system, a number of Indiancities including Bengaluru, Chennai,Hyderabad and Mumbai are fast onthe track to attain the same.Bengaluru - India’s Silicon Valleystands tall amongst the cities whichare brimming with metro work goingon in full vigour. Apparently, several

Metros Stations at BengaluruApurva Bose Dutta,Architect, BengaluruPhoto courtesy:DKA Architects

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MRTS proposals for this IT Capitalhave been in the pipeline for thepast 24 years. Dating back to 2003,the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) and RITES (Rail IndiaTechnical and Economic Services)prepared a detailed project reportfor the Bengaluru metro rail withthe proposal of two double linecorridors: East-West (EW) andNorth-South (NS) with their lengthsrespectively being 18.10 km and14.90 km. With a nod of approvalfrom the Karnataka government in

2005 and the Union Government in2006, the Bangalore Metro RailCorporation Limited (BMRCL) wasfounded in 2006 as a joint venturebetween the Government of Indiaand the Government of Karnatakafor the implementation of BangaloreMetro Rail system. The East-WestCorridor starting from Byappanahalliwill terminate at the Mysore RoadTerminal whereas the North-SouthCorridor will begin at theHesarghatta Road Terminal andend at Puttenahalli.

Metro Stations byDKAAmongst the 43 metro stationsbeing planned for the city, 11 havebeen designed by local architects -Dutta & Kannan Architects (DKA).This is indeed a major achievementin a country where such technicalaviation designing is left tointernational architects and only ahandful of architectural firms have

been able to do justice to designingmetros. It is common knowledgethat initially all the metros stationsin Bengaluru were given to leadingarchitectural firms in the city todesign; who came up with brilliantconcepts but however exceeded thebudget of 35 crores (for eachstation) that was permitted. This iswhere the Government had toreconsider the proposals andRITES, the general consultants forthe project stepped in. It wasdecided that all the metro stationsneeded to be redesigned. Tenderswere floated for the same and werewon by L&T (an electrical and civilconstruction company), S N Bhobe(an electrical company who are alsocurrently handling the Mumbaimetro) and SNCL. Indraneel Duttawho did his graduation fromChicago, following which he workedin London for five years, is theprincipal architect of DKA. He says,“For an architectural firm to qualifyfor a project worth 1000 crores,

Mysore Road Station

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they need to collaborate with astructural engineering firm. Thuscame in our collaboration with SNCLavalin, an engineering andconstruction company. SPAN, astructural engineering firm (whichis currently doing the Hyderabadand Chennai Metro) was boughtover by SNC Lavalin for the same.

SNC Lavalin’s responsibility for thisproject was structural design andproject coordination while DKA washeading the architectural, MEP andfire fighting.” The project gotlaunched in 2007; the east-weststations are looking forward tocompletion in Dec 2010 and thenorth-south in Dec 2012.

DKA has been into commercialarchitecture for sometime and havebeen working on contemporarydesigns. They are working towardsopening offices in Kolkata andChennai. The Metro project was thefirst of its kind which they decidedto work on, all thanks to seniorpartner Brinda Kannan who hasworked on three underground metroprojects and two airport terminalsin London before she moved downto India to form DKA three yearsback. Without making any othermetro stations as their reference,the firm thus plunged into theproject. A lot of calculations areinvolved in the design of the metrosince it needs to have a dynamicstructural design. Talking about thecomplications in designing a projectas challenging as this, Indraneelinforms us, “Any building takesdead load and thus requires a fourpoint check. In the case of metrostations, they take load passing

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through them and thus require a12 point check. As architects wewere never trained to design metroswhich have lots of calculations andan important consideration in itscost factor”.

The metro project was dividedinto four reaches – Reach 1 (R1),Reach 2 (R2), Reach 3 (R3) andReach 4 (R4). DKA are the projectleaders of R2 and R3B. The stationsdesigned by them on R2 are ‘onthe road stations’ with carriagewayon both the sides – comprising ofstations at Mysore Road (terminalstation), Deepanjali, Vijayanagar,Hosahalli, Toll Gate, Magadi Road.The stations on R3 are ‘off theroad’ and comprise of stations atPeeniya Village, Peeniya IndustrialArea, Jalahalli, Dasarahalli,Hessargatta (terminal station).Apprising of the difference in bothIndraneel adds, “Off the roadstations are possible in non-packedareas where there is lots ofavailable land. It is easier to designcompared to ‘on the road’ stationswhich are a structural challengesince in them there is a median ofa single pier of columns to whichthe load gets transferred. On ‘offthe road’ stations you havecolumns at both ends of thestructure for the load to distribute.”The Terminal stations have beendesigned on a budget of 45 crores.

Diagram for theDifferent ReachesConceptThe metro stations have beendesigned bearing in mind the visionto provide passengers with asecure, comfortable and anattractive commuting experience.“We got the preliminary designreport by the BMRCL whichcontained a detailed survey of thearea on which the track has tocome up, its alignment, soil testdata, rider ship data and norms tobe followed. These stations havebeen designed considering thepublic in general, operator and the

passengers”, says Indraneel. Eachof the metro stations has standarddimensions – 135 m long x 16 m /18 m wide. The width of the stationswas finalised considering thelength of roads in Bengaluru whichare between 18m - 24m. The lengthwas calculated keeping in mind thelength of the coaches (the width ofone coach is 19m). According todesigns and calculations threecoaches would suffice for theamount of people travelling up to2015; after which the length hasbeen maintained to adjust threeadditional coaches. Provisions havebeen made for peak hours till 2015for the addition of three morecoaches if the existing three don’tsuffice. It is also of note that thesetrains will be electric trains sansengine.

The stations have been soconceptualized that any station canbe evacuated in five minutes flat.This is based on the calculationsof the ridership data that thegovernment has provided thearchitects. Based on this data whichkeeps in mind the population andlocal transit, staircase widths andplatform widths have been finalized.NFPA (National Fire Protection

Association) and internationalnorms have also been adhered to.

Referring to the other metros inIndia Indraneel maintains that heprefers the Kolkata one, since theDelhi metro concentrates more onfunction without paying muchimportance to form. Abroad, his anyday preference is the Jubilee Line,London.

PlanningThe metro lines in case of the R3corridor have been kept parallel tothe highway. In the R2 corridor thecanopies of the metro stations fallon the road. The entrance systemon the footpath leads to theescalator which leads to an unpaidand paid concourse level. Part ofthe unpaid level also serves as theoperational area where the staffssits and the remaining hasautomatic devices for tickets. Thepaid levels in some of the stationshave retail also. The next level abovethis level is the platform level wheretrains come. Circulation throughthese levels is via stairs or elevator.On each platform, there is oneescalator with a space provision fora second one in the future.Indraneel also points out at the

Courtesy: Apurva Bose Dutta,

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new strategy coming up… of thesemetro stations opening up intomalls, one such being designed bythe Mantri developers.

The architect came up withcreative ideas–like having photo

voltaic on the roof of one of themetro stations, different roof formsto get in light, and harvesting rainwater; but these concepts weren’tokayed. Within very strict timelinesthe product had to be delivered,

and Indraneel didn’t want to repeatany of his designs. The result isdefinitely some swanky lookingdesigns palpable of Bengaluru’scontemporary architecture andevocative of a mesmerising imageof the IT Capital. Structural Glazingand Natural stone form a part of allthe metro stations, with variedadditional materials being used inthem individually – like sandstonein the Peeniya Village Station, ACPin Ulsoor Station and regular plasterin the Mysore Road station. Allthanks to the design, there is noartificial light needed before 6 pm.Track ceiling lights like ‘HunterDouglas’ with mirror optic tubelights and CFL’s light up thestations after evening. Thearchitects have also envisioned theMetro as a means of amelioratingthe quality of urban life. Besidesthe stations serving their basic

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functions, there is a plaza for streetperformance at the Mysore roadterminus, space for fairs, exhibitionsand a commercial complex at theMagadi Road Station, site foradvertising and pathways to be usedfor temporary exhibitions andshopping.

Dwelling on the structure of thestations Indraneel adds, “Thestructural design was verychallenging on the single pierdesign as the entire load of thecantilevers (9m on either side) andtracks station loads were on asingle pier. Also, the structure hadto take into account a lot ofmovement from the trains comingin and out. The roof truss had to bedesigned to take into account a lotof wind load from an approachingtrain.”

ConclusionBengaluru has a population nearingseven million. The number ofpassengers expected to travel on

the metro everyday is estimated at10.20 lakh in 2011 and 16.10 lakhin 2021. With so much of pressureon the transport system, everyoneis waiting for the metros which havebeen in planning for long. Oncecomplete, they would be easing outthe traffic congestion, strains on theroad and reduction of pollutionlevels. It is envisaged that the traveltime from end to end on the east-west corridor will be 33 minutes,and on the north-south corridor willbe 28 minutes. At the time DKAtook on this project, there was norule book in India detailing firenorms for the design of metros.The Kolkata Metro was designedwithout a rule book and the DelhiMetro was designed oninternational norms. But therelevance of metros is fast pacingup in India, with today a set ofrules being adopted for metroconstructions. The Bengaluru metrostory doesn’t end here. It is toutedto be one of the biggestinfrastructure projects for the city tilldate. Though at present 43 stationsare being constructed which wouldget completed by 2015 but the DBR(Design Basis report) issued byBMRCL shows an approval for 162stations which means that in futurethere would be tributaries on theNorth-South and East Westcorridors.

Interior view of a station

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For DKA, the approach to a project involves athorough knowledge about the programme, an in-depth study of the images that the client has inmind, stressing on the form and then fitting in thefunction into it. Brinda and Indraneel have alsoformed HybridArch under DKA for out-of-the-boxthinking projects, for experimentation witharchitecture and product designs, one of thembeing a luxury hotel in Slovakia that they are currentlyworking on. On a concluding note, Indraneelaffirmatively says, “We are amongst the five firmsin India which specialise in metro design. We justneed the ridership data to design a metro station.We are a young firm and have establishedourselves as a totally architectural firm since 2006.In three years, we have completed 3 million sqft ofconstruction in commercial and residential projects.Our firm is consciously working towards aviationprojects like airports, bus terminals etc. TheBengaluru metro project once completed will bethe best in India.”

The metro debate however does exist; makingeveryone ponder if this would be the best solutionfor Bengaluru people and traffic. Options like BMTCbuses might just fare better considering thecoverage, accessibility, commute time, cost andeconomic viability. With bated breaths, we need towait and watch!!!

Bangalore-based architect Apurva Bose Dutta isan architectural journalist and she can be contactedat [email protected].