As many as 80 construction workers who were engaged in building the Nagawara-Gottigere line (Reach-6) of Namma Metro Phase-2 in Bengaluru tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Tuesday.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited Chief Public Relations Official B Yashwanth Chavan confirmed the development and said that all of them are asymptomatic.
“All the workers have been shifted to the nearby COVID Care Centre. All the primary contacts of these workers have been identified and have been kept in isolation,” he told TNM.
He confirmed that none of the workers were in touch with the officials of the Namma Metro. The workers were working under contractor Larsen and Turbo, which is building that particular stretch of the metro corridor.
This development comes after one floor of the Shantinagar office occupied by the BMRCL was reported to have been sealed down after one staff member tested positive for the virus on July 3. The office was set to be closed for sanitisation processes and was set to be open after three days.
A media report on the incident had said that the time, the staffer who tested positive was from the design team and those who were in touch with him were advised home isolation.
Metro rail services in the Garden City have remained shut since mid-March when the first set of COVID-19 restrictions were put in place.
This development on Tuesday comes as Bengaluru Urban and Bengaluru Rural, and a few other districts in Karnataka will be under a weeklong stringent blanket lockdown, following a steep rise in cases.
The lockdown which was announced on Saturday by Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa for the two Bengaluru districts will be in effect from 8 pm on July 14 to 5 am on July 22.
Except for essential services, all offices and industries will be shut and personal vehicles will be allowed to ply only if there is a valid emergency reason.