After a two-year delay, the underground corridor of Namma Metro was finally inaugurated amid much fanfare and excitement on Friday. “It was a great ride; it did not feel like we were in a tunnel at all. I cannot wait to take the entire trip in the morningtomorrow,” said Sangeetha K., one of the passengers, who experienced the inaugural ride.
The Purple Line connecting Baiyappanahalli in the east to Mysuru Road in the west will be operational from 6 a.m. on Saturday. Excited citizens are looking forward to a test ride ahead of using the metro to commute to work on Monday.
The five underground stations on the line promise to be a completely new experience for commuters. With massive stations, escalators, air-conditioning and services like Wi-Fi, which will come up soon, a trip through the underground corridor is something to look forward to.
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“I can now take the metro from the S.V. Road Station in Indiranagar to my workplace at Mysuru Road. I will have to walk only a hundred metres to the station, instead of changing three buses,” said Arvind S., a resident of Indiranagar. “Of course, I will take the metro on Saturday to see how fast it is.”
During the inauguration ceremony, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah put pressure on the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. to complete the entire phase 1 network of 42 km by November 1, and to start operations on Karnataka Rajyotsava.
The earlier deadline set by BMRCL was December 2016 for starting operations.
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The inside view of Dr. Ambedkar Vidhana Soudha station: