Namma Metro to make extra trips on holidays

People travel by Namma Metro rail after its inauguration in Bangalore, on Thursday. Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) will operate extra services on Sunday and during the Deepavali holidays if there is huge passenger rush. As Namma Metro was launched ahead of a series of festival holidays, BMRCL is expecting a huge turnout.

On Thursday, BMRCL had operated 90 trains, 45 in each direction, when the service was opened to the public at 4 p.m. The last services were operated at 11.30 p.m. from M.G. Road and Byappanahalli stations.

BMRCL Director (Operations and Rolling Stock) D.D. Pahuja told

The Hindu 38,546 people turned up for the ride, generating traffic revenue of Rs. 7.53 lakh. On Friday, 39,639 people travelled on Namma Metro as of 7 p.m., shelling out Rs. 6.94 lakh.

“This euphoria will be there for a week at least and hence we're ready to operate extra services. The metro is there for people's convenience. As long as the last passenger who has bought the ticket is at the station, the trains will continue to run,” Mr. Pahuja said.

The trains could be run at 8-minute frequency instead of the present 10 during peak hours on holidays. “BMRCL is prepared to operate trains till midnight and even beyond, if there are passengers,” he said.

Meeting the cost

The present traffic revenue is enough to meet the cost of operation, which is about Rs. 6 lakh a day. This covers electricity, salary of the BMRCL personnel and expenditure towards the staff hired for housekeeping, customer relations and security.

However, it is too premature to talk about breaking even as the project is not complete. The loan repayment too will start after the entire project is commissioned, Mr. Pahuja said.

Meanwhile, a bigger turnout was witnessed at metro stations on Friday, with serpentine queues at M.G. Road and Trinity Circle stations.

As one train can accommodate only about 1,000 passengers, BMRCL officials have rationed the number of passengers per station. This is to ensure that the train is not jampacked from the starting stations — M.G. Road and Byappanahalli — and to allow people waiting at the stations en route to board the train. While 500 passengers are allowed to board from the starting stations, the numbers decrease over the next stations.

On Friday, Byappanahalli Station saw the highest number of footfalls with 13,955 people travelling till 7 p.m. followed by M.G. Road Station with 10,810, Indiranagar 4,642, Trinity 2,957, Ulsoor 2,418 and S.V. Road 1,621, as of 7 p.m.