No way out: Slow travel, long delays inconvenience metro passengers

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Commuters and office goers travelling on the Purple line of Bengaluru Metro were in for an unpleasant time on Thursday with longer stops at stations due to technical snags in addition to doors not opening for passengers to exit, among the problems they faced.

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) had confirmed that the trains on the purple line had encountered a glitch, resulting in the journeys getting halted. At 9.58 am at the Trinity Metro Station, passengers were surprised to see the doors not opening, and were stranded there.

“It took us 20 minutes to travel from KR Puram to Byappanahalli, which is much longer than usual,'' a pasenger lamented.

Later, commuters on the same train at the Sir M Visveswaraya Station reportedly faced a similar plight. The same train, the BMRCL said, has been withdrawn to the depot. Services returned to normalcy by 11.30 am.

Such technical snags, commuters complain, occur frequently. Going by the clarifications shared by BMRCL, this year saw three such incidents due to technical reasons, excluding suicide attempts and a tree falling on the track.

Netizens demanded that BMRCL look into such problems and come up with a permanent solution for them.

First trial run starts on Yellow line

On the other hand, the BMRCL have confirmed that the first mainline test of the 18.81 kilometre long Yellow Line has been successfully conducted, from RV Road to Bommasandra, via Central Silk Board and Electronics City.

The test was conducted on the six-coach train which had arrived from China in February this year. Reports suggest that the second train will arrive by the end of August. The line could be functional by the end of the year, if BMRCL were to receive more coaches, reports have said.

Trains to start early on Sunday

In view of the Union Public Service Commision(UPSC) exams scheduled on Sunday, June 16, trains on both the Purple and Green line will start at 6.00 am to facilitate travel of aspirants, from all the terminal stations - Challaghata and Whitefield (Purple Line) and Silk Institute and Nagasandra (Green Line).