Bangalore Metro Rail Corp. to build an office space
Bangalore Metro Rail Corp. Ltd (BMRCL) has finalized its plans to build an office complex in the two acres of their land along SV Road.
Although this land was recently put up for a bid, there were not many taker and the ones who bid were scrapped by BMRCL
If sources are to be believed, the design for the office complex is in process and the BMRCL has confirmed the project.
To keep the metro fare costs affordable and at the same time sustain the high cost of maintenance, BMRCL would need revenues from such projects so as to cover costs.
Although BMRCL’s efforts to bid out 10.52 acres of land along Byappanahalli metro station and the present land along SV Road were at vain; they base their hopes on such developments to flow some significant revenue as addition to the revenue collected from ticket sales, shop space and advertisements within the metro.
According to a real estate consultant, maximizing non traffic revenue is important to profits of metro rail systems mainly in India where there is no possibility to line up metro fares with the cost of services. The metro rail system should have at least one third of their revenues coming from advertising and property development, he added.
The decision to develop the land by themselves is not a bad idea at all. Even DMRCL faced the same situation when first metro project was started. Initially bidders there were no bidders, so the first project for an information technology park was built from their own money.
Nearly two-third of the money that grows this additional provision will go to BMRCL and the remaining money will be distributed among various stakeholders such as the city corporation and power and water utilities.
Currently, the Bangalore metro, called as Namma Metro (Our metro) operates its rails to six stations along a 6.7 km stretch. The first phase of the metro which is due to be completed by 2014 has two lines and is expected to cover close to 42.3 kms and 41 stations, including the one where the two lines intersect.
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