BENGALURU: After the mega inauguration of Reach 2, from Magadi Road to Mysore Road on Monday by the Chief Minister, the stretch was finally opened to public on Wednesday. Although the response to the 6.8 km stretch consisting of six stations was not that spectacular as that of its inauguration, the crowd was fairly good.
The initial two trips saw about 450 odd passengers boarding the metro. The total number of commuters was merely 4,500 in total of 24 trips till 10 pm and the revenue earned was around Rs 75,000.
Vasanth Rao, spokesperson of BMRCL said, “The response was fairly good. Since 4 pm is not the peak hour, the number is not that much. However, the ridership is likely to increase gradually from Thursday.”
Nevertheless, many people came as there was a lot of excitement and euphoria to take a joy ride. Rajeev K, a student who came to witness the metro said, “I am happy that finally metro is here although not fully. This is hope for many living here. My college is situated in the Central Business District and may be tomorrow my office will also be located there. So, I am positive about this development. Something is better than nothing.”
No much purpose until Majestic connectivity
There is no doubt that ridership on this line will pick up only with the Majestic connectivity. There was unanimous opinion among the people that until Majestic connectivity comes into place this stretch is not much of a help except avoiding the bottleneck at Deepanjali Nagar. Naseer Ahmed a businessman said, “The time taken to get to the metro station and reach Magadi Road from Mysore Road is the same as me taking my own vehicle. It is not going to serve the purpose until the entire corridor is thrown open to the public.”
More parking spaces needed
BMRCL needs to add more parking spaces and integrate metro As far as the facilities at the stations goes BMRCL has got it right this time. There are toilet facilities at all the stations. But parking and integration of metro with other modes of transport still seems to be a perennial issue.
BMRCL official claim that 200 two-wheelers and 100 odd cars can be parked at Magadi Road. There is about 5 acres parking space at Mysore Road where 300 cars and 200 two-wheelers can be parked. In the other stations, there is good amount of space for two-wheelers but some arrangement needs to be worked out for four-wheelers.
Poor access to metro and issues pertaining to last mile connectivity has been one of the major issues. Sameera B, a student says, “If we do not get a bus after getting down from the metro, I am not going to use the Metro except for joy rides with friends. It will reduce to being just a tourist attraction. I feel metro should work on this.”
BMRCL official said, “There is a bus stand at Vijaynagara, we will try to integrate it. We will see how and where we can integrate the metro with other modes of transport.”
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