Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya warns of protests in metro stations if Yellow Line not opened by August

Bengaluru: Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on Saturday led an agitation against repeated delays in opening of the Yellow Line Metro in the city. The BJP leader said that there would be protests in metro stations if BMRCL breaks its August deadline for the operationalisation of the line again.

Reacting to calls by citizens and public representatives on the early opening of Namma Metro’s Yellow Line, the BMRCL stated that the RV Road-Bommasandra metro line would ‘hopefully’ be thrown open in mid-August. Surya, in response, denounced the BMRCL for breaking its own deadlines over 10 times on the Yellow Line and warned of protests in the metro stations along the route by the public if this final commitment by the metro organisation is broken again.

“Bengaluru’s traffic crisis can be resolved only if private vehicles on the road reduce and ridership in public transport increases,” Surya said, addressing a crowd outside Lalbagh. “Due to the delay in the opening of the Yellow Line, commuters are stuck in traffic jams at Silk Board and other junctions. The BMRCL has been breaking its own deadlines several times. If this commitment to open the line in August is also broken, then people will have no option but to protest outside each of the Yellow Line’s unopened metro stations.”

On Saturday, a delegation of citizens, led by Surya, Bengaluru Central MP PC Mohan, MLAs M Krishnappa (Bengaluru South), Ravi Subramanya (Basavanagudi), Uday Garudachar (Chickpet), CK Ramamurthy (Jayanagar), MLC Gopinath Reddy and BJP Bengaluru South organisational district, staged a protest at Lalbagh Main Gate. The delegation submitted a memorandum to the BMRCL MD at the venue.

In their memorandum, they criticized the BMRCL for causing severe inconvenience to Bengalureans in their daily commute due to the ongoing delays in the opening of the Yellow Line. The Yellow Line spans from RV Road to Bommasandra, covering 16 stations over a distance of 19.15 km. Once operational, the line is expected to serve 2.5 lakh passengers daily, significantly easing congestion in critical areas like Electronic City and Silk Board. It was initially slated to open in 2021, but multiple delays over the years have created uncertainty regarding its opening and operationalisation.

Three trainsets of six coaches each for the Yellow Line are currently being manufactured at the Titagarh Rail Systems Limited at Uttarpara near Kolkata.

First scheduled for 2021, the launch was pushed to late 2023, then postponed to just before the 2024 General Elections. Following that, a new deadline of January 2025 was announced, which has now been extended to July 2025. Even now, BMRCL officials are only hopeful of having the line operational by August 2025.

Surya has been at the forefront in pushing for the completion of the line’s civil works. He also addressed several roadblocks during this period. Through multiple stakeholder meetings and ministerial interventions, Surya enabled the early supply of car bodies for the metro train and also obtained the necessary visa clearances for the Chinese engineers working on the metro rakes. He also coordinated a dedicated line in Titagarh for manufacturing trains for BMRCL. Surya also coordinated between CRRC and software provider Melco to deliver the beta version of TCMS (Train Control Management Software) by January 2024, ahead of its earlier June 2024 timeline.

Similarly, PC Mohan and other BJP MLAs from Bengaluru have been consistently following up and pressing for the early commissioning of the line.