Amid rising demand to open the Yellow Line of the Bengaluru Metro connecting RV Street and Bommasandra through Digital Metropolis, Maheshwar Rao, the managing director of the Bengaluru Metro Rail Company Restricted (BMRCL) has assured that the company is focusing on to fee the stretch by August 15.
This comes after Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya together with Bangalore Central MP P C Mohan and different BJP MLAs held a residents’ protest rally underneath the slogan “Yellow Line na open maadi (Open Yellow Line)” at Lalbagh Predominant Gate on Saturday, urging BMRCL to fee the much-awaited stretch. Moreover, Surya additionally demanded that the metro rail company make public the fare fixation report, which had advisable over 100 per cent hike in Metro fares, triggering public ire.
Addressing the gathering on the protest web site, Rao stated, “Presently, we now have three trains, with the third practice having arrived final month. Since these are automated practice working methods, an impartial security evaluation check is underway which can verify the security controls of those driverless trains. We predict the report by July 7.”
He added, “As soon as the report is submitted inside subsequent week, we’ll request regulatory clearance and approvals from CMRS (Commissioner of Metro Rail Security). Your complete regulatory course of and obligatory approvals will want no less than a month’s time. Subsequently, tentatively, we’re focusing on to operationalise the stretch by August 15.”
Rao additionally said that attributable to inadequate practice provide, BMRCL is prone to operationalise the stretch utilizing solely three trains with a headway of 20 minutes. “The trains will cease at solely 5 to 6 stations. We’ll examine the ridership patterns, together with demand for providers, until Bommasandra and streamline the operations accordingly. We predict two trains each month from the Titagarh Rail System beginning August,” he stated.
In the meantime, Rao said that finalisation of loans for Section 3 of the Bengaluru Metro is predicted by March 2026. Section 3, which incorporates two elevated corridors spanning 44.65 km with 31 stations, is estimated to value Rs 15,611 crore. Japan Worldwide Cooperation Company (JICA) is probably going to offer a major mortgage, with roughly Rs 7,577 crore (60%) anticipated to be sourced from it. Rao stated that pre-preparatory works can be executed by September and tenders can be floated by October, topic to JICA approvals.
Slamming the BMRCL in reference to the dearth of transparency over the fare fixation report (FFR), Tejasvi Surya stated, “Metro and bus providers are the 2 most important modes of public transport. Not too long ago, BMRCL hiked Metro fares by as much as 100%. Earlier than saying the revision, a committee had gone on a global tour and submitted a report, based mostly on which fares have been elevated by as a lot as 130%. Because the hike, Metro ridership has dropped by practically 1 lakh commuters day by day.”
Story continues beneath this advert
He added, “A number of journalists and activists have filed RTI purposes looking for particulars of the report. Nevertheless, even after three months, the report has not been made public. What’s the BMRCL attempting to cover? FFR isn’t any nationwide secret that publishing it might assist India’s enemies.” The BMRCL MD stated he’ll reply to Surya on this regard by a letter.
In the meantime, on the standing of the Hebbal–Sarjapur Metro hall, Rao stated, “The federal government of India has requested us to transform the fee. An impartial company has been engaged to discover whether or not the fee may be introduced down. The MP raised issues concerning the proposed tunnel highway on the identical alignment. We’ll look into it.”