Metro Stations in Bengaluru.pdf - Apurva Bose Dutta

NBM&CW February 2010 

February 2010 

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www.nbmcw.com 

Project Reports: 

Metro Stations in Bengaluru 

DLF IT Park, , Noida

Project Report 

Metros Stations at Bengaluru 

Apurva Bose Dutta, 

Architect, Bengaluru 

Photo courtesy: 

DKA Architects 

An Introduction to 

the Bengaluru Metro 

India is fast approaching 

Urbanisation - with rapid growth in 

population and in an attempt to 

decongest crowds, metros in major 

cities of the country are springing 

up. With Kolkata and Delhi already 

experiencing the benefits of rapid 

transit system, a number of Indian 

cities including Bengaluru, Chennai, 

Hyderabad and Mumbai are fast on 

the track to attain the same. 

Bengaluru - India’s Silicon Valley 

stands tall amongst the cities which 

are brimming with metro work going 

on in full vigour. Apparently, several 

76 NBM&CW FEBRUARY 2010

2005 and the Union Government in 

2006, the Bangalore Metro Rail 

Corporation Limited (BMRCL) was 

founded in 2006 as a joint venture 

between the Government of India 

and the Government of Karnataka 

for the implementation of Bangalore 

Metro Rail system. The East-West 

Corridor starting from Byappanahalli 

will terminate at the Mysore Road 

Terminal whereas the North-South 

Corridor will begin at the 

Hesarghatta Road Terminal and 

end at Puttenahalli. 

Metro Stations by 

DKA 

Amongst the 43 metro stations 

being planned for the city, 11 have 

been designed by local architects - 

Dutta & Kannan Architects (DKA). 

This is indeed a major achievement 

in a country where such technical 

aviation designing is left to 

international architects and only a 

handful of architectural firms have 

been able to do justice to designing 

metros. It is common knowledge 

that initially all the metros stations 

in Bengaluru were given to leading 

architectural firms in the city to 

design; who came up with brilliant 

concepts but however exceeded the 

budget of 35 crores (for each 

station) that was permitted. This is 

where the Government had to 

reconsider the proposals and 

RITES, the general consultants for 

the project stepped in. It was 

decided that all the metro stations 

needed to be redesigned. Tenders 

were floated for the same and were 

won by L&T (an electrical and civil 

construction company), S N Bhobe 

(an electrical company who are also 

currently handling the Mumbai 

metro) and SNCL. Indraneel Dutta 

who did his graduation from 

Chicago, following which he worked 

in London for five years, is the 

principal architect of DKA. He says, 

“For an architectural firm to qualify 

for a project worth 1000 crores, 

MRTS proposals for this IT Capital 

have been in the pipeline for the 

past 24 years. Dating back to 2003, 

the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation 

(DMRC) and RITES (Rail India 

Technical and Economic Services) 

prepared a detailed project report 

for the Bengaluru metro rail with 

the proposal of two double line 

corridors: East-West (EW) and 

North-South (NS) with their lengths 

respectively being 18.10 km and 

14.90 km. With a nod of approval 

from the Karnataka government in 

Mysore Road Station 

NBM&CW FEBRUARY 2010 77


they need to collaborate with a 

structural engineering firm. Thus 

came in our collaboration with SNC 

Lavalin, an engineering and 

construction company. SPAN, a 

structural engineering firm (which 

is currently doing the Hyderabad 

and Chennai Metro) was bought 

over by SNC Lavalin for the same. 

SNC Lavalin’s responsibility for this 

project was structural design and 

project coordination while DKA was 

heading the architectural, MEP and 

fire fighting.” The project got 

launched in 2007; the east-west 

stations are looking forward to 

completion in Dec 2010 and the 

north-south in Dec 2012. 

DKA has been into commercial 

architecture for sometime and have 

been working on contemporary 

designs. They are working towards 

opening offices in Kolkata and 

Chennai. The Metro project was the 

first of its kind which they decided 

to work on, all thanks to senior 

partner Brinda Kannan who has 

worked on three underground metro 

projects and two airport terminals 

in London before she moved down 

to India to form DKA three years 

back. Without making any other 

metro stations as their reference, 

the firm thus plunged into the 

project. A lot of calculations are 

involved in the design of the metro 

since it needs to have a dynamic 

structural design. Talking about the 

complications in designing a project 

as challenging as this, Indraneel 

informs us, “Any building takes 

dead load and thus requires a four 

point check. In the case of metro 

stations, they take load passing 



through them and thus require a 

12 point check. As architects we 

were never trained to design metros 

which have lots of calculations and 

an important consideration in its 

cost factor”. 

The metro project was divided 

into four reaches – Reach 1 (R1), 

Reach 2 (R2), Reach 3 (R3) and 

Reach 4 (R4). DKA are the project 

leaders of R2 and R3B. The stations 

designed by them on R2 are ‘on 

the road stations’ with carriageway 

on both the sides – comprising of 

stations at Mysore Road (terminal 

station), Deepanjali, Vijayanagar, 

Hosahalli, Toll Gate, Magadi Road. 

The stations on R3 are ‘off the 

road’ and comprise of stations at 

Peeniya Village, Peeniya Industrial 

Area, Jalahalli, Dasarahalli, 

Hessargatta (terminal station). 

Apprising of the difference in both 

Indraneel adds, “Off the road 

stations are possible in non-packed 

areas where there is lots of 

available land. It is easier to design 

compared to ‘on the road’ stations 

which are a structural challenge 

since in them there is a median of 

a single pier of columns to which 

the load gets transferred. On ‘off 

the road’ stations you have 

columns at both ends of the 

structure for the load to distribute.” 

The Terminal stations have been 

designed on a budget of 45 crores. 

Diagram for the 

Different Reaches 

Concept 

The metro stations have been 

designed bearing in mind the vision 

to provide passengers with a 

secure, comfortable and an 

attractive commuting experience. 

“We got the preliminary design 

report by the BMRCL which 

contained a detailed survey of the 

area on which the track has to 

come up, its alignment, soil test 

data, rider ship data and norms to 

be followed. These stations have 

been designed considering the 

public in general, operator and the 

passengers”, says Indraneel. Each 

of the metro stations has standard 

dimensions – 135 m long x 16 m / 

18 m wide. The width of the stations 

was finalised considering the 

length of roads in Bengaluru which 

are between 18m - 24m. The length 

was calculated keeping in mind the 

length of the coaches (the width of 

one coach is 19m). According to 

designs and calculations three 

coaches would suffice for the 

amount of people travelling up to 

2015; after which the length has 

been maintained to adjust three 

additional coaches. Provisions have 

been made for peak hours till 2015 

for the addition of three more 

coaches if the existing three don’t 

suffice. It is also of note that these 

trains will be electric trains sans 

engine. 

The stations have been so 

conceptualized that any station can 

be evacuated in five minutes flat. 

This is based on the calculations 

of the ridership data that the 

government has provided the 

architects. Based on this data which 

keeps in mind the population and 

local transit, staircase widths and 

platform widths have been finalized. 

NFPA (National Fire Protection 

Courtesy: Apurva Bose Dutta, 

Association) and international 

norms have also been adhered to. 

Referring to the other metros in 

India Indraneel maintains that he 

prefers the Kolkata one, since the 

Delhi metro concentrates more on 

function without paying much 

importance to form. Abroad, his any 

day preference is the Jubilee Line, 

London. 

Planning 

The metro lines in case of the R3 

corridor have been kept parallel to 

the highway. In the R2 corridor the 

canopies of the metro stations fall 

on the road. The entrance system 

on the footpath leads to the 

escalator which leads to an unpaid 

and paid concourse level. Part of 

the unpaid level also serves as the 

operational area where the staffs 

sits and the remaining has 

automatic devices for tickets. The 

paid levels in some of the stations 

have retail also. The next level above 

this level is the platform level where 

trains come. Circulation through 

these levels is via stairs or elevator. 

On each platform, there is one 

escalator with a space provision for 

a second one in the future. 

Indraneel also points out at the 



new strategy coming up… of these 

metro stations opening up into 

malls, one such being designed by 

the Mantri developers. 

The architect came up with 

creative ideas–like having photo 

voltaic on the roof of one of the 

metro stations, different roof forms 

to get in light, and harvesting rain 

water; but these concepts weren’t 

okayed. Within very strict timelines 

the product had to be delivered, 

and Indraneel didn’t want to repeat 

any of his designs. The result is 

definitely some swanky looking 

designs palpable of Bengaluru’s 

contemporary architecture and 

evocative of a mesmerising image 

of the IT Capital. Structural Glazing 

and Natural stone form a part of all 

the metro stations, with varied 

additional materials being used in 

them individually – like sandstone 

in the Peeniya Village Station, ACP 

in Ulsoor Station and regular plaster 

in the Mysore Road station. All 

thanks to the design, there is no 

artificial light needed before 6 pm. 

Track ceiling lights like ‘Hunter 

Douglas’ with mirror optic tube 

lights and CFL’s light up the 

stations after evening. The 

architects have also envisioned the 

Metro as a means of ameliorating 

the quality of urban life. Besides 

the stations serving their basic 



functions, there is a plaza for street 

performance at the Mysore road 

terminus, space for fairs, exhibitions 

and a commercial complex at the 

Magadi Road Station, site for 

advertising and pathways to be used 

for temporary exhibitions and 

shopping. 

Dwelling on the structure of the 

stations Indraneel adds, “The 

structural design was very 

challenging on the single pier 

design as the entire load of the 

cantilevers (9m on either side) and 

tracks station loads were on a 

single pier. Also, the structure had 

to take into account a lot of 

movement from the trains coming 

in and out. The roof truss had to be 

designed to take into account a lot 

of wind load from an approaching 

train.” 

Interior view of a station 

Conclusion 

Bengaluru has a population nearing 

seven million. The number of 

passengers expected to travel on 

the metro everyday is estimated at 

10.20 lakh in 2011 and 16.10 lakh 

in 2021. With so much of pressure 

on the transport system, everyone 

is waiting for the metros which have 

been in planning for long. Once 

complete, they would be easing out 

the traffic congestion, strains on the 

road and reduction of pollution 

levels. It is envisaged that the travel 

time from end to end on the eastwest 

corridor will be 33 minutes, 

and on the north-south corridor will 

be 28 minutes. At the time DKA 

took on this project, there was no 

rule book in India detailing fire 

norms for the design of metros. 

The Kolkata Metro was designed 

without a rule book and the Delhi 

Metro was designed on 

international norms. But the 

relevance of metros is fast pacing 

up in India, with today a set of 

rules being adopted for metro 

constructions. The Bengaluru metro 

story doesn’t end here. It is touted 

to be one of the biggest 

infrastructure projects for the city till 

date. Though at present 43 stations 

are being constructed which would 

get completed by 2015 but the DBR 

(Design Basis report) issued by 

BMRCL shows an approval for 162 

stations which means that in future 

there would be tributaries on the 

North-South and East West 

corridors. 



For DKA, the approach to a project involves a 

thorough knowledge about the programme, an indepth 

study of the images that the client has in 

mind, stressing on the form and then fitting in the 

function into it. Brinda and Indraneel have also 

formed HybridArch under DKA for out-of-the-box 

thinking projects, for experimentation with 

architecture and product designs, one of them 

being a luxury hotel in Slovakia that they are currently 

working on. On a concluding note, Indraneel 

affirmatively says, “We are amongst the five firms 

in India which specialise in metro design. We just 

need the ridership data to design a metro station. 

We are a young firm and have established 

ourselves as a totally architectural firm since 2006. 

In three years, we have completed 3 million sqft of 

construction in commercial and residential projects. 

Our firm is consciously working towards aviation 

projects like airports, bus terminals etc. The 

Bengaluru metro project once completed will be 

the best in India.” 

The metro debate however does exist; making 

everyone ponder if this would be the best solution 

for Bengaluru people and traffic. Options like BMTC 

buses might just fare better considering the 

coverage, accessibility, commute time, cost and 

economic viability. With bated breaths, we need to 

wait and watch!!! 

Bangalore-based architect Apurva Bose Dutta is 

an architectural journalist and she can be contacted 

at apurvabose@yahoo.com.

Metro Stations in Bengaluru.pdf - Apurva Bose Dutta

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