Bengaluru: Six-coach trains on the anvil
The six-coach trains were to be introduced much earlier, but got held up due to technical issues.
Bengaluru: Namma Metro commuters, who have to often travel in crammed coaches, can now look forward to a better travel experience in a couple of months.
The BMRCL planning to convert all the existing three-coach rakes to six-coach ones by the end of September. Currently there is only one six-coach rake, which runs on the Purple Line.
The six-coach trains were to be introduced much earlier, but got held up due to technical issues. Due to this delay, it was a nightmare for the commuters using the Kempe Gowda interchange station, where the commuter volume is the highest.
Commuters complained that security officials used to switch off the escalators and make people wait at the entrance, as the platforms were already packed with people.
BMRCL MD Ajay Seth told Deccan Chronicle, “Interchange stations were the biggest problem for the metro staff to control every day. We hope that this will reduce waiting time for commuters at these stations. We expect to commission the next six-car train by mid-September and another six-coach set by early October. This will be the second six-car for the Purple Line. We have also discussed to increase the frequency of trains in the next few days. ”
The builder of the metro coaches, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), is ready with the second unit of six-car coaches and it will be handed over to BMRCL soon.
Though both the Purple and Green lines are crowded, the ridership is higher in Purple Line.
The first six-car was commissioned on June 22 and is popular among passengers. “We have seen that many deadlines have been missed by the BMRCL official regarding six-car train in both Green and Purple lines. If this happens by September, that will be very helpful for passengers, especially those using the interchange stations. Hope BMRCL will not miss the deadline this time," said a metro user.