BENGALURU: Here is cheering news for Metro commuters who have been seeing unprecedented rush since Monday due to the 50 per cent surge in occupancy. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) will run additional trips between specific stations based on the crowd inside trains and platforms.
BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola bills the new initiative as ‘Dynamic Planning’. He told Express, “With the daily ridership now averaging 3 lakh, clearing the rush during peak hours is our priority. Our Operations Control Centre at Baiyappanahalli monitors passenger movement inside trains and on platforms on a real-time basis.”
If the operation staff take a decision that trains were getting too crowded, then we will run trains at a very short notice to help ease the rush, he added.
R M Dhoke, in-charge of Operations and Maintenance and Rolling Stock Director at BMRCL, said that Metro had been successful in running trains with quicker frequencies on specific days the entire week. “As of now, the big rush seems to be from the Mysuru Road to Baiyappanahalli direction in the morning hours. Due to the commuters’ need to reach offices on time, we kept introducing new trips to clear the crowd on the platform.” A special loop track along the East-West Line facilitated this.
June 19 marked a historic first for Metro when it ran three trains with a 2-minute frequency. “We did not run additional trains during evening hours as passengers can afford to miss a packed train and board another. Whenever we found the need for it, we successfully ran them in between trains on all working days of this week,” Dhoke said. A record 3,13,138 passengers travelled by Metro from 5 am to 11 pm on the day.
Over Rs 1 crore fare collection
BMRCL’s fare collection crossed Rs 1 crore for the first time on June 19, the day it witnessed its highest ever occupancy. This marked a 100 per cent jump from the collection before launch of Phase-I, which was Rs 48 to Rs 49 lakh per day.
“We collected Rs 1,01,11,000 on Monday, the first time we touched Rs 1 crore in collection. Since then, it has stabilised between Rs 80 lakh and Rs 90 lakh per day during the rest of the week,” the MD said.