Over the years, the Airport Metro alignment is being changed quite often and nothing was decided concretely. Every new Government taking over Karnataka is changing the alignment at its own wish. Although voting was held for the alignment, it was name sake.

Original plan was to have the Airport Metro start from Gottigere and take the Gottigere - Nagawara route and proceed towards Airport either via Budigere Cross or Hebbal. Finally it was decided via Hebbal. Recently, it was changed to start from KR Puram instead of Gottigere.

Imagine an Airport Traveller travelling all the way to KR Puram or Hebbal say from Electronic City or Kengeri to catch the train. Reaching KR Puram from Kengeri / Electronic City via Taxi is an hurricane task especially during peak hours. We cannot expect an air traveller to hop on and hop off multiple lines to reach KR Puram with all the luggage along with normal Metro Travellers. Carrying a laptop bag during peak hours itself is an hurricane task. Instead of travelling to KR Puram, which is located on the Eastern Part of Bengaluru from say Kengeri / Electronic City, one would travel all the way to Airport itself.

Analyzing the line alignment, it starts from the North-Eastern Part of Bengaluru and touches Airport which is slightly towards Easter and Mostly Northern Bengaluru. An ideal Airport line should cris cross the city from the opposite end passing through the centre where people could travel in Taxis or other modes from their homes with luggage and get into Airport Metro without much standing and special arrangements for heavy luggage especially for international luggage and travel to Airport without the worry of traffic. Earlier alignment exactly does that. It connects Gottigere which is well connected by NICE Road all the way from Tumkur Road to Hosur Road. Most of the southern most Bengaluru residents like Electronic City / Bannerghatta / Kanakapura / Kengeri / Magadi Road can easily reach Gottigere by Road without much worries of traffic. With Airport train which could be run once in 15-20 minutes going all the way to Airport,  andwith regular metro running in between Gottigere - Nagawara, this could have been ideal situation. 21.25 kms of the Gottigere - Nagawara stretch from the current metro speeds at 2 minutes per km can be covered in around 40 minutes. A high speed run from Nagawara to Airport can be covered in around 20-25 minutes. Imagine travelling to Airport from Gottigere in 1hour 5 minutes and  from Jayadeva in around 50 minutes. It would be a boon and Air Business would improve a lot especially for cities like Chennai,Hyderabad and Kochi where road and rail is taking away Air Business.

Residents of JP Nagar 7th Phase, Kudlu Gate etc can take IIMB Station, Residents of Jayanagar, BTM Layout, HSR Layout can take the Jayadeva Station, Gandhi Bazaar, Wilson Garden , Koramangala can take the Diary Circle  Station,  Domlur - Indiranagar at Vellara Junction / MG Road, Vidhana Soudha travellers in Cantonment.

If we analyze properly, catchment of this route is more compared to KR Puram. For KR Puram, the proposed light rail from Bannerghatta Road to Hebbal should be rather extended if needed running Airport Metro and Light Rail side by side or one over the other from Nagawara to Hebbal.

Imagine the Hotel Business in the Central Bengaluru like Taj, Oberoi, Leela etc, where thousands of air travellers arrive, their business improves further with  new alignment.

Eastern Bengaluru Residents like Whitefield, KR Puram can still use this by travelling by Road till Nagawara and that  air passenger count would be nearly 15-20% compared to the rest of Bengaluru. If Airport Train is run with this population, it will fail like Delhi Airport Rail when operated by  Reliance.

New Proposed KR Puram alignment makes BMRCL life easier, but no good for Bengaluru. It would be like KR Puram Hanging Bridge doing more harm than good. Let us not do one more hanging in KR Puram. Please sign this petition and do better for Bengaluru.