Bengaluru: Rashmi S from Nayandahalli took her first metro ride from Mysore Road to Magadi Road on Sunday. She was elated to eventually witness a functional metro. Reach 2, which was inaugurated recently, finally saw some action over the weekend as many headed to experience a joy ride. Although, the numbers were not as great as on other stretches, the silver lining is, the number of passengers has been increasing.
The stretch was opened for the public on November 14, from 4pm till 10 pm and it saw just 4,514 passengers. On November 19, the ridership went up to 7,578, on November 20, it rose to 10, 267 and on Sunday it saw the highest number of people coming to rake a ride. 19,115 passengers turned out this Sunday.
Rashmi S adds, “Our entire family has come today to experience the metro ride. Since it is a Sunday, it was a good outing for us. But we don’t think we will be able to use it on a regular basis until the entire stretch is functional.”
Many experts feel the mega inauguration for such a small stretch was not necessary as it was not going to serve the real purpose. Urban expert V Ravi Chandar says, “Initially there will be curiosity, so there will be people coming on weekends. The long-term potential will be known once the entire network is in place. It is too early to say, till we get the Majestic Interchange. These small stretches cannot give us an accurate idea and we cannot see it in isolation. Right now it is nothing more than a toy train.”
Work in North-South Corridor progresses
Tunneling work in north-south corridor seems to be in progress, as Kaveri Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) between Chickpet and Majestic now have just 217.5 m to complete in order to break through at Majestic. Kaveri TBM has already completed 526.5m (351 rings). Meanwhile, arrangements to launch the Krishna TBM for northbound tunneling between Chickpet and Majestic station is in progress. Finally, Godavari TBM, which is tunneling between North Ramp and Majestic station has completed 427.5 m (285 rings), another 537m (358 rings) balance remains to reach Majestic station.
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