Bangalore Metro: First impressions are good

On Karnataka Rajyotsava (Nov 1), a State holiday, we decided to take take a ride on the recently inaugurated Bangalore Metro. It is heartening to see the euphoria of Bangaloreans, most newspapers have been carrying the photos of Bangaloreans with wide smiles at the Metro station. Few have been celebrating their birthdays & wedding anniversaries in the train (now this is stretching too much).

I got into the train from the CMH Road station. The station is huge, clean, well organized. Need to see for how long we, the citizens, will keep these stations clean. Stations don’t have rest rooms yet, may be that is one reason things are not bad yet. The security on the platform has a hard time preventing people from crossing the yellow line.

Since it was a public holiday the trains were full, jam packed. This is good. Let Bangalore Metro make good money. Most of them were checking out the Metro (just like me). We got down at the last stop, MG Road station. The plan was to get into the train and head back home. But the queues so long we had to come back in an autorickshaw. Auto drivers were a kind of fuming in front of the Metro station, they are clearly unhappy about Metro taking away part of their business.

Strangely, the first phase of Bangalore Metro has been completed without any scams. May be mining, land denotification fetched a lot more money for Karnataka’s politicians.

Few negative points,

• Byppanahalli & M.G. Road are the main stations. The road at Byppanahalli which connects NGEF and Old Madras road is atrociously narrow. It is not clear if a brain dead engineer planned that road. This is going to be a nightmare for everybody – motorists and Metro passengers.
• Elevators meant for senior citizens/handicapped were used by normal people at CMH Road Metro station.

Currently Bangalore Metro Reach-1 covers about 6 kms. Very miniscule for a city like Bangalore but we have to start from somewhere. Let us say “Cheers to Metro”!