Much to the frustration of commuters, the parking lot at the terminating station of Yelachanahalli on the newly inaugurated section of the Green Line, was packed with vehicles with not a slot to spare by noon on Friday, the first day of regulated parking operations at the station.
The station currently has space for 400 two-wheelers and 58 four-wheelers, but that is not enough. Commuters were asked to wait till someone exited the parking lot before they were allowed to enter.
Since the launch of operations on this stretch, Namma Metro has been seeing a consistent daily ridership of around 3 lakh. While this is good news for Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL), it once again brings to fore the problem of parking, which the metro authorities have been grappling with.
Terminal stations are worse off than others. With thousands of commuters using the Baiyappanahalli station on the Purple Line – which is the terminating station in East Bengaluru – the parking problem became a tipping point. A few weeks ago, the BMRCL had opened another parking lot on the NGEF side to accommodate 400 more four-wheelers.
More parking
Mysuru Road station is likely to get additional parking space to accommodate 200 more cars and 350 more two-wheelers. Currently, there is space for 1,700 two-wheelers and 240 cars at the station that is BMRCL’s largest parking lot across Phase I.
“We are in the process of calling for tenders for another parking lot at Mysuru Road. Yelachanahalli will also be looked at if some arrangement can be made to accommodate more vehicles,” a senior BMRCL official said.
An additional parking lot is also likely to come up at the Magadi Road station which has space for 140 two-wheelers and 47 cars at present. Similar facilities are on the cards for R.V. Road and Banashankari stations.
With the ridership expected to increase to around 5 lakh per day in the coming months, finding a parking slot at all times of the day at terminating stations is likely to be a tough task. Interestingly, Nagasandra, which is the last station in the North, does not seem to have parking issues. This station has space for 110 two-wheelers and 145 cars.
“It is a very convenient way for people who live in the outskirts to travel. However, in the past few months, finding a parking space has become a problem. People should also look at using two-wheelers instead of cars to park at the station since it is a small commute for them from their house to here,” said Yusuf Raza, a resident of Old Madras Road.
Activists submit memorandum
The protests over the usage of Hindi in Namma Metro signage continued on Friday with members of several organisations taking out a protest in front of the BMRCL office in the morning and submitting a memorandum to Pradeep Singh Kharola, Managing Director.
Speaking to reporters after accepting the memorandum, Mr. Kharola said, “We have received the memorandum that Hindi should not be used on name boards at the stations. We will forward it to the Government of India. We have used three languages based on the instructions of the Government of India.”
Embassy signs deal
The Kadubeesanahalli station, on the metro corridor on the Outer Ring Road, will be constructed and maintained by the Embassy Group, which signed an agreement with BMRCL to this effect on Friday. The real estate group has agreed to pay an amount of ₹100 crore to BMRCL for the above project in instalments and in return will be granted a concession of 30 years from the time commercial operations begin on the stretch.
The BMRCL had invited private companies to sponsor up to 25% of the total project cost. As part of the agreement, the company will maintain the station.
The station will also have ramp access to the Embassy TechVillage, a statement from Embassy said.
