BJP to campaign for metro

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka on Saturday said that it will aggressively campaign for implementation of the metro rail project in Bangalore.

The party spokesperson added that if there are any indications that it will stalled, they will take up agitation at that point of time.

Speaking to the media in Bangalore on Saturday, BJP's Anantha Kumar said: "The metro rail is a tested and proven mode of transportation in the world today. There are 99 metro rails operational in the world and which are functioning properly. For a city like Bangalore which is among the fastest growing cities in Asia, we need a project such as Metro."

Responding to statements from a consortium of private companies trying to get approval for a monorail system in Bangalore and who had said they are proposing to set up a feeder monorail system, Kumar said that first let the main system of metro come up and then "lets think about the feeder monorail system."

"There are only 49 monorail systems operational currently in the world and mostly they are not used for mass transportation. Metro has proven to be the best system for mass transportation and who-ever is creating hurdles for this are the same people who were creating problems for the Bangalore International Airport," he said referring to Deve Gowda's recent statement requesting the Centre and State to look at other options of mass transportation for Bangalore.

Kumar further highlighted that the metro project has got all the required clearances and it will be sheer wastage of time and money if this project is delayed further.