After the Purple Line was made operational and connected Whitefield’s tech corridor to the city’s rapid mass transport system, Namma Metro, officially known as Bengaluru Metro, saw an increase in daily ridership that reached unprecedented heights.
The Namma Metro’s whole purple line went into commercial service on October 9, 2023. The increased connection has many passengers delighted, but crowded trains have left many questioning why the authorities are not conducting these operations more frequently.
According to Times of India, on the Byappanahalli-Kadugodi (Whitefield) segment alone, Namma Metro recorded over 7.5 lakh riders on October 13, which is 50,000 more than the statistics from October 11. “We want to have more trains running at frequent intervals, but are currently not in a position to do so,” Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) MD Anjum Parvez told ToI.
“With the available fleet of Metro trains, we cannot increase the frequency of services. Once we induct new trains, we will be able to operate trains at a frequency of 3 minutes on both the lines,” BMRCL MD Parvez added.
The biggest issue at the moment is said to be the lack of rakes, or coaches. Reports state that there are 57 train sets (six cars each set) in BMRCL. Thirty of these are on the Purple Line while the other twenty-two are on the Green Line. In addition, five to six trains are often kept aside for maintenance and other eventualities.
Although the BMRCL now runs trains every five to ten minutes, many users still complain that the wait times frequently increase during peak hours. “Our main goal has been to disperse the crowd at the Majestic Interchange. We are operating loop trains between Majestic and MG Road every three minutes during morning rush hour,” BMRCL MD Parvez stated. On October 13, approximately 1.4 lakh people utilised the Majestic route to change trains.
The China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) was the recipient of a tender for 216 coaches from BMRCL four years ago. However, a number of factors have hampered the introduction of new trains, such as the pandemic and the CRRC’s need for extra time to collaborate with regional producers to produce coaches in accordance with the Make-in-India initiative.
Reports also state that two new train sets from China are scheduled to arrive at BMRCL in a month or two. Meanwhile, the Yellow Line’s launch (the portion between RV Road and Bommasandra) has also been hampered by the delay in the introduction of new trains.
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