Metro commuters heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday as services resumed on Indiranagar-MG Road stretch, restoring the seamless connectivity between stations on the Purple Line.
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) said the services were restored around 9.30 am, right in the middle of the peak hour during which metro records nearly half of its daily ridership on the line.
Train operations between Indiranagar and MG Road stations were suspended on Friday to facilitate repair work on a crossbeam supporting a viaduct on Pillar 155 near the Trinity Metro station.
The operations on the stretch were scheduled to resume on Monday. However, on Sunday, the corporation promised to run trains by Tuesday afternoon.
The public relations office of the corporation said services were restored at 9.35 am, allowing the trains on the 4 km stretch after a gap of three days.
“I was travelling from Magadi Road, and there was an announcement that the train would run till Baiyappanahalli. It was a relief considering the problems we had in switching between bus and metro on Friday and Saturday,” said Sumathi K, a commuter.
Ajay Seth, managing director, BMRCL, said an agency would be appointed in January to assess the safety of Phase 1 infrastructure. The external audit would likely to be completed in three or four months, and the report would throw light on similar problems in other metro pillars on the 33.48 km elevated stretch of Phase 1.
A rare ‘bonhomie’ between metro and BMTC
The three days of disruption in the metro services between Indiranagar and MG Road stations showed how both transport authorities can work in tandem for the convenience of commuters.
The BMRCL had hired 80 to 110 buses from Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) for transportation of commuters. The commuters at Baiyappanahalli, who wanted to reach stations beyond Indiranagar station, boarded BMTC buses that carried them free of cost till the Cubbon Park station.
Similarly, the metro commuters who wanted to travel beyond MG Road station could get down at the Cubbon Park station and board buses to Baiyappanahalli.
A BMTC officer managing traffic at the Cubbon Park metro station called it a rare bonhomie between the two corporations. However, the BMRCL will have to pay lakhs of rupees for hiring the buses.
Last year, the BMTC stopped operating most of its metro feeder bus services, two months after introducing the buses to provide first and last mile connectivity.
The corporation had written to the BMRCL twice seeking financial support to run feeder buses, where low ridership led to losses.
