A week after the south line of Namma Metro was launched, effectively connecting south, north, east, and west Bengaluru, commuters are as agitated about the crowded trains as they are happy about having a faster, traffic-free mode of transport.
Trains are available once every five or six minutes during peak hours, and once every 10 minutes during off-peak hours. However, even this is not helping in reducing the rush at any given hour, commuters say.
“I took the last but one train (the last train is at 11 p.m.) on Friday and even that was crowded. It is worse during the day. The crowd has definitely increased since the Nagasandra-Yelachenahalli line opened,” Rachana. K, who is a regular passenger from M.G. Road to Vijayanagar, said.
Eager commuters on the new south line too are taken aback by the rush on the trains. Jayashree R., who boards the train at the Yelachenahalli station, said, “The rush is so much that breathing becomes difficult sometimes. Owing to the huge crowd, even the announcements on the train is not audible and I often have to crane my neck to see the boards at stations to know where I am,” she said.
Another commuter recalled a metro staffer along the south line complaining about not being able to screen the huge rush of passengers at the entrance, many of them managing to walk away without being screened.
Yet, close to three lakh people have consistently been taking the metro each day since the new line was launched for the simple reason that they manage to reach opposite ends of the city in a far lesser time than what it takes by road. “I used to take take over an hour by bus from home to office. Now I reach in less than 30 minutes,” said Rajeshwari, who travels from Yelachenahalli to Cunningham Road.
Vani Bhimsen is also not complaining. “I stay in Indiranagar and travel constantly to Jayanagar. Travelling has become so much faster because of the metro,” she said.
But there is no immediate solution in sight for those complaining about the rush. BMRCL officials maintained that additional coaches will be added to the train only in December.
“Until then, we will try increasing the frequency of the trains to one every three minutes,” BMRCL spokesperson U.A. Vasanth Rao said.
