Bengaluru: Close to 8,000 invitations have been handed out for the inauguration of Namma Metro Phase-1, which will be held at Vidhana Soudha at 6 pm on Saturday with President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurating it through video link. A whopping five lakh people are expected to benefit from this stretch, which began construction in 2007.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Union Surface Transport Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Governor Vajubhai Vala and other important union and state ministers and MLAs will be present for the flagging off.
“The Ambassadors of France and Japan too have been invited, as they made a financial contribution to BMRCL Phase-1,” said Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola. Japanese Ambassador Kenji Hiramatsu and Consulate General of Japan Kitagawa will attend the ceremony. Japan International Cooperation Agency lent Rs 3,000 crore for Phase 1. Representing France is Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler. Metro received Rs 1,500 crore from Agence Francaise de Development.
“Japan extended 64,536 million Japanese Yen in concessional ODA loans over two tranches since 2006 for the development of Metro Rail. The cumulative Japanese loan amount stands at 306,809 million yen. The newly constructed 12 km segment of Metro Green Line would greatly help in mitigating the impact of mounting traffic in Bengaluru," said the Japanese Embassy in a press statement.
The first commercial ride from Nagasandra to Yelachenahalli will begin at 4 pm on Sunday.
BMRCL CPRO Vasanth Rao said, “The last service will leave Kempegowda Metro Station at 11.25 pm in all directions. Regular services on all lines begin on June 19 at 5 am. The speed of trains will be slow initially as they are pilot trains. The frequency on the Purple Line varies from 4 to 20 minutes in peak and non-peak hours. The trains will run between 6 to 20 minutes on the Green Line based on the peak hours.
Strategically timed is the launch of new hi-tech BMTC buses, smart card and renovated foot over bridge at Kempegowda Bus Station on Saturday at 10 am, by Mr Siddaramaiah and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy.
Coming to the aid of Metro commuters along the Southern corridor are 100 buses with 13 new feeder bus routes, complementing the Green Line, including the latest Kempegowda to Yelachenahalli section.
“We currently have 16 Metro feeder routes, making 1,224 trips on East to West corridor. We are now adding 13 more routes from Sunday along the North to South Corridor where the buses will make 1,918 trips per day. BMTC has taken feedback from public through the website, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter," said BMTC's chief traffic manager. Of the total 29 routes, some of the new feeders include Shantinagar to Vijayanagar Metro Station passing through Lalbagh West Gate, Nayandanahalli, Attiguppe and Girinagar. Another feeder begins at Gottigere and ends at Nayandanahalli passing Anjanapura, Yelachenahalli and PES College.On Sunday, Bengalureans will be stepping into Asia's biggest Metro station, that is, Kempegowda Interchnage and will also go through South India's first underground Metro network.
