Bengaluru: Here is some good news for those Bengalureans who are frustrated with the city’s traffic. The BMRCL is hopeful of completing the Green Line of Phase-1 by the first quarter of 2017. The Green Line stretches from Nagasandra in the North-West to Puttenahalli in the South.
Krishna Tunnel Boring Machine emergence into sunlight from the Chikka Labagh side of the Majestic station last month signals that the new line would be soon ready for use by commuters. BMRCL officials say that they are confident of completing the wiring and cabling for Phase-1 by December.
The commencing of Namma Metro’s Phase-1 was delayed by at least five months owing to difficulty in the drilling work of the tunnel connecting Chickpet and Majestic as the terrain was very hard and the problems were compounded when Krishna TBM’s cutter broke down and a new cutter had to be imported from Italy.
The BMRCL staff are working day and night to ensure that the work is completed before the deadline. The work on the Majestic Metro station is likely to be completed by January.
According to BMRCL Chief Public Relations Officer Vasanth Rao, “The Green Line will be commissioned and fully operational in April 2017. The Nagasandra to Mantri mall connection is already complete.”
An average of 1.80 lakh passengers are utilizing the metro services every day.
Stressing that the ridership was expected to touch half a million by the first year once Phase-1 was completed, Mr Rao added that “BMRCL expects the metro ridership to touch 2 million two years from now.”
Once the work completes on the first phase, the metro line will be linked to Jayanagar and Yelachenahalli.
Daily commuter Shilton Tony Irudayaraj says, “The metro has been a boon for me. I stay in Banaswadi. All I need to do is ride down to the metro station at Byapanahalli, park my bike and take the metro to M.G. Road. I’m eagerly waiting for all the metro extensions to be completed. It will become so much easier and will cut transit time by half. Besides it will also help ease traffic on the roads.”
Since the Delhi Metro has a daily footfall of 2 million, half a million users per day will be a spectacular figure for Namma Metro, considering it is still is taking its first baby steps.
