JOIN USBangalore embraces Metro
For, any glitch during the maiden commercial operation would mean not just bad press but reproach from higher ups and political leaders. Notwithstanding the false start by Namma Metro, South India’s first mass rapid transport system, BMRCL finally kept its promise and launched its stellar service when the first two rakes began operations – officially – simultaneously from Baiyappanahalli and M G Road where hundreds had gathered to watch the inaugural programme.
The host of dignitaries who hopped on to the first two trains after the flag off at 11.05 am could not help but go gaga over what in unison was termed as an “international facelift” for Bangalore.
And the hundreds who thronged the two stations vied for the first ride at 4 pm. Long queues of people eager to be among the first to use the service snaked out of the stations and out on M G Road, as far down as Barton Centre.
Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath’s flag off paved the way for the VIP ride that ferried them from MG Road to Baiyappanahalli and back, from where they entered Manekshaw Parade Grounds, the venue for the mega inauguration event with a grand reception. ‘Ellarigu Namaskara’ (greetings to all), Akitaka Saiki, Ambassador of Japan said in Kannada before congratulating the City for being a proud owner of a service that matched international transport services that reminded him of his ride in the Tokyo subway.
An hour-and-a-half after he said that, over a thousand people had made a beeline to enter the M G Road station hoping for a date on the first commercial ride on Namma Metro.
“This is going to be here anyway, I do not understand why these people have to all rush together,” a police constable struggling to manage the eager crowd said. That this was a date the City had waited for years is something he could not understand.
“I have come all the way from Nagavara for a 14-minute ride that doesn’t even take me home, you think I will complain to stand in the queue,” asked Archana N, wiping the sweat that smudged her kohl-laden eyes, outside the Baiyappanahalli station. Similarly, after his trip to Baiyappanahalli and back to M G Road, Lokesh, a Madiwal resident, said: “It might take a long time for us (Madiwala residents) to get the Metro and this useless, but the ride was worth every rupee I paid, it was truely a ‘out of this world’ experience.”
This teaser of a service covering only 6.7-km may not solve Bangalore’s myriad traffic problems, but its popularity stems from different reasons: The first person to buy a ticket at Baiyappanahalli depot was Gurusiddappa, an areca nut seller from Hoskote, about 30-km from the terminus. The M G Road station saw people coming all the way from Rajarajeshwarinagar, a long way away from the City’s central business district.
Explaining the probable reasons for this and taking credit for their accomplishments, a BMRCL official said: “There are many people who have never seen anything close to this, the quality.” By 10:45 pm, an estimated 60,000 people had used the service and BMRCL had collected Rs 4 lakh in ticket sale revenue.
With the short 6.7-km reach, the foundation for which was laid on June 24, 2006, becoming a reality, thousands of Bangaloreans who thronged the stations from places the service may never go, hoped that the other reaches and phases are completed at the earliest.