The passenger rush on the Metro since the opening of the Purple Line has had a positive effect on the sales of smart cards, officials say.
Earlier, people preferred to take tokens for reaches as there was no end-to-end connectivity. But this has reduced since the entire east-west corridor has been opened for operations.
Sales of cards are expected to improve in the coming days as regular commuters begin using the corridor to travel to work from Monday. “I plan on buying a card as it will not be possible to line up everyday to buy tokens,” said Nachiket Rao, who plans to use the Metro to commute.
Buying a card will actually make the trip cheaper than a normal city bus, according to Managing Director, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, Pradeep Singh Kharola, who pointed out that cards had a 15 per cent discount on the ticket fare. BMRCL has also tied up with two private banks to issue debit cards with in-built smart cards for Namma Metro.
As many as 20 feeder buses are also operational from the SV Road station, the Mysuru Road station and the Vijayanagar station to ferry people. “We are operating buses to ITPL from SV Road station. Depending on the patronage, we will take a call on increasing these services after a week,” he added.
Some exits remain closed
Staff Reporter
Bengaluru: On Sunday, the second day of commercial operations for the Purple Line, some exits at some underground stations remained closed. This was the scene at the Cubbon Park Station, the BR Ambedkar (Vidhana Soudha) station and the Sir M. Visvesvaraya station where exits were kept closed.
Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation officials attributed this to pending security concerns which would be addressed in the coming days. “We will open all exits as soon as these concerns are addressed,” a senior official said but did not elaborate on what the concerns were specifically.
Officials bank on IPL for high footfall
Staff Correspondent
Bengaluru: After Sunday’s rush on the Purple Line, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) officials are hoping to have another day of high footfall on Monday as the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket match will be held at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Kolkata Knight Riders.
“We are ready to operate services post midnight till the rush from the stadium clears. In addition, there will also be feeder buses between Sampige Road to Majestic to help people from the north to reach the stadium as well,” said U.A. Vasanth Rao, General Manager, Finance and Spokesperson, BMRCL.
With a seating capacity of 40,000 and limited parking space available nearby, the stadium witnesses huge crowds on match days. The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) regularly operates special buses on match days travelling to all parts of the city as well. These will also be available on Monday.
Road near Kempegowda station caves in
Imran Gowhar
Bengaluru: A portion of the newly-laid road near the Kempegowda underground station of Namma Metro at Majestic caved in when a goods-laden truck was plying in the middle of the road on Saturday night.
Authorities of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) filled the caved-in portion of the road by 6 a.m.
According to eyewitnesses, the truck was moving towards Chikkaballapura from Chickpete when the rear wheels sunk in. The driver Hariprasad called the control room and later, the BMRCL authorities. In the wee hours on Sunday, the BMRCL officials pulled out the truck and patched up the road.
BMRCL officials told The Hindu that the road caved in nearly 60 feet away from the station and that there was no effect on Metro operations. “The vehicle went close to the drain and perhaps there was a sink hole and this portion may have given way. This was fixed early in the morning,” said UA Vasanth Rao, BMRCL spokesperson.
The police, who examined the area, said that seepage from water pipes could have caused the road to cave in.
