Bengaluru: On Saturday, the metro saw a record crowd of 1,26,708 commuters thronging the purple line. Sunday was no exception. As the purple line connects to major weekend destinations, like MG Road and Indiranagar, the metro was an automatic choice for most Bengalaureans. The joyride continues as thrill-seekers are coming out in large numbers to get a first-hand experience of the much-anticipated underground metro.
Deccan Chronicle joined the crowds on a start-to-finish journey. Although this reporter did not reach the final destination in 35 minutes as promised by BMRCL, it was very close and the train arrived in a creditable 38 minutes.
As the train departed from Byappanahalli, we could see first-time travelers and children who were curiously wandering around the train looking around excitedly. Interestingly, a few people were seen doing a recce of the east-west corridor.
Prerna, who runs a small school at Kengeri said, “I wanted to see to what extent the metro would help me reach my place of work, so I thought of taking a ride. And yes, this is really good. Normally I take over two hours to reach my workplace by road with all the traffic snarls and here I was reaching in 35-40 minutes, which was unimaginable!”
Among the passengers were a bunch of college students heading to Indiranagar from Magadi Road to celebrate the birthday of a friend. Julian C from the group said, “For some of us, the metro connection has been a great boon. Weekend trips and shopping have become much easier.”
The train on this stretch travels through some of the major junctions of the IT hub, exposing the speedy urbanization of the city till Mysuru Road and that is what has been attracting the huge ridership.
Sunanda K, a housewife who brought her younger sister and in-laws for a speedy trip on the train, believes that a short hop on the east-west line will give any outsider a brief tour of Bengaluru city.
She said, “The trains go through important junctions and one could see the huge IT buildings, MG Road and Mayo Hall. And when the train goes through Cubbon Park, you realize that you are in the garden city even after so much tree-cutting!”
Although the train takes off slowly and then runs at a decent speed, it picks up pace at the underground section.
There is no doubt that for many the metro has come as a blessing. Already demands have started pouring in to add more trains during peak hours.
Manjunath, who works at BSNL office at Cubbon Park and resides in Whitefield, points out, “The trains have been jam packed during peak hours. I am happy with the services but it would be good if they could add more coaches or increase the frequency of the trains.” On Sunday the ridership till 9 pm was 1,19,467 and the revenue was Rs 29 lakh.
Toilets, drinking water facilities to be upgraded
Toilet and drinking water facilities will have be upgraded at all the metro stations. Currently, the toilets earmarked for metro staff have been made available for commuters and there has no specific or separate arrangements for passengers .
Since the toilets have not been constructed from the commuters’ perspective, their location is not appropriate and cleanliness needs to be looked into. If you are at Byappanahalli and you are looking for a toilet, it will consume at least 10 minutes of your time, as you have to walk down platform number two, then climb a few stairs where the training of metro staff is going on and then pass through a long corridor to reach the toilets.
