Bengaluru's Namma Metro gets 5th train for Yellow Line; 15-min frequency from mid-October

Bengaluru: Namma Metro has received all six coaches of the fifth trainset for the Yellow Line, sparking hopes that frequency on the newly opened corridor will improve to 15 minutes in October. 

Three coaches reached the Hebbagodi depot late on Sunday night, followed by the remaining three around Monday midnight, said a Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) official aware of the matter. 

Coaches 1, 2 and 5 arrived first, followed by coaches 3, 4 and 6, the official added. 

Bengal-based Titagarh Rail Systems Limited (TRSL) had dispatched the coaches on trailers in the early hours of September 19. 

The trailers, employed by global freight forwarding company Total Movements, covered 2,036 km in 11 days, or 185 km per day on average. 

The coaches will soon be formed into a trainset and moved to the Hebbagodi depot's Inspection Bay Line (IBL) for static tests. This will be followed by two weeks of night trial runs on the mainline. 

Like the fourth trainset, the fifth one is also fully made in India and is expected to enter passenger service in mid-October. 

Once the fifth train enters passenger service, trains on the Yellow Line will run every 15-16 minutes. 

The 19.15-km Yellow Line, which connects RV Road with Bommasandra via Silk Board Junction, opened on August 11 with three trainsets and a 25-minute frequency. Frequency improved to 19 minutes from September 10 onwards after the fourth trainset was added. 

Average daily ridership on the Yellow Line now stands at 84,000, according to the BMRCL. 

The Yellow Line has expanded Bengaluru's metro network to 96.1 km and increased daily ridership to over a million. 

TRSL is making trains under a sub-contract with China's CRRC Nanjing Puzhen Co Ltd, which won a Rs 1,578-crore contract to deliver 36 trainsets for Namma Metro. It is expected to deliver three more trains by year-end.