Come June 2019, all 50 trains of Bengaluru's Namma Metro will have six coaches each and with the addition of three coaches on each train, the passenger capacity of each train will increase from 975 persons to 2,004.
On Friday, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy flagged off the first six-coach train at Byappanahalli Metro Station, along with Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri and Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara.
The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation has planned to convert all its trains from three-coach to six-coach trains to decongest the coaches and ensure more safety and convenience to the commuters.
The Bharat Earth Movers Limited(BEML), a local PSU, had been awarded the contract to manufacture the 150 additional coaches in March 2017 through international bidding. “All 50 trains will be converted into six-coach trains by adding two-three coaches every month, starting August 2018. Each coach costs Rs 8.8 crore. The BEML has assured us that all 150 coaches will be delivered by June 2019, six months ahead of schedule. With the introduction of the new coaches, one entire coach will be earmarked for women passengers,” said Mahendra Jain, managing director of BMRC.
“Out of the 50 three-coach trains, 24 trains are plying on the East-West Corridor and 18 along the North-South Corridor and are handling 298 revenue trips, earning an average of Rs 1 crore daily. After conversion, the passenger capacity, safety and efficiency will be enhanced with special features,” added Jain.
Puri reminded that in the age of rapid urbanisation, the metro was a fine example of world-class urban mobility and that comes at a price. “Often, the opposition and partisan politics suggest the metro should be either free or there should be no fare hike. And I ask myself a question: whether we can maintain the safety and efficiency? So, the choice is between having a world-class asset or a system in shambles. Metros are capital intensive and need huge loans and to repay the loans, you should have an economically efficient system that is also safe and has features that can enhance ease of living of citizens,” said Puri.
Referring to the demographic shift in urban areas as a major challenge, Puri said, “It is bound to get worse. In 1947, our urban population was only 17 per cent out of the 350 million population. The latest census states the urban population is 30 per cent of 1.25 billion people. By 2030, we will have 600 million people living in large cities and urban areas. So, it is absolutely essential we decongest the roads by providing world-class urban mobility and metro trains are one such example.”
“The metro trains we have developed are world-class assets. At 280km, Delhi metro is already the world's fourth-largest metro service. I understand the importance of metro as I usually hop into the Delhi metro to go to the airport,” confided Puri.
Kumaraswamy recalled that the foundation for the first phase of Namma Metro was laid during his earlier tenure as the chief minister (on June 24, 2006) by then prime minister Manmohan Singh. “Today, we have dedicated the first of the 50 six-car trains and we are committed to decongesting the city with projects like metro, Outer Ring Road and creation of satellite towns, as Bengaluru has reached a saturation point,” Kumaraswamy observed.
Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister G. Parameshwara hinted that creation and linking of satellite towns to Bengaluru is the only way to decongest the city, which is dubbed as the fastest-growing city in Asia.
“The phase-I of Namma Metro extending to 42km stretch was built at a cost of Rs 14,000 crore and Phase 2 covering 72 km will cost Rs 26,000 crore. On completion, the ridership of metro might reach 20 lakh commuters daily against the current ridership of 3.5 lakh daily. But we already have 70 lakh vehicles plying on the city roads, which is expected to go up. To arrest further growth of Bengaluru, we might be forced to develop satellite towns be it in Ramanagara, Tumkur and Kolar and link them by metro and suburban rail,” Parameshwara said.