A congregation of All Saints Church and citizens groups, such as Environment Support Group and Heritage Beku, termed the decision of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to alter the design of the underground station at Vellara Junction as a “win win for all.”
The organisations said that democratic engagements helped in saving the church land and green cover on the campus.
At a press conference here on Monday, they elaborated on the efforts to preserve the sacred grove of the over 150 year old church and a special school.
For the construction of an underground station (Rashtriya Military School), the BMRCL had initially acquired 3,551 square metre of land, which was met with strong resistance. In 2019, the BMRCL made further attempts to acquire additional land to build entry points to the station and other purposes. Protests continued and online campaigns were held demanding the authorities concerned to drop the plan citing that it has an impact on biodiversity and heritage structure.
Theyhad also approached the European Investment Bank (EIB) that is financing the project to save the church land from acquisition and explore other feasible options. They said that when efforts were on to persuade BMRCL, the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) issued notification for acquisition of land, forcing the congregation and citizen groups to continue protests.
A release stated that after Anjum Parwez took over as MD of the BMRCL, more deliberations happened exploring other options, in which higher ups of the state government from Urban Development Department (UDD) participated, yielding positive results. As per the decision taken by the BMRCL, against the proposed acquisition of 4582 sq meters, only 166 sq .m would be acquired permanently and 218 sq.m would be acquired on a temporary basis. “Only seven trees would be felled or relocated, as against over 100 trees that would have been destroyed. An agreement in this regard signed in January 2022,” states the release.
