BENGALURU: If you are a frequent metro commuter, you may have noticed several metro entrances have been shut down. Interestingly, they have been closed since 2017. Dasarahalli, Peenya Industry and Peenya Metro stations had one entry open while the other entries on Tumakuru Service Road has remained shut. Other stations include Cubbon Park, KSR, and Sir M Visvesvaraya metro stations.
“Some of the entrances are closed based on the station loading. Such entrances are close to other entrances and are hardly within 100 metres. Each entry requires a lot of security infrastructure and manpower which increases maintenance cost. Considering this, decisions were taken to save the public money and without causing any inconvenience to commuters,” BMRCL spokesperson B L Yeshwanth Chavan told TNIE.
However, when Chavan was asked if it was poor planning on BMRCL’s side, there was no response. An average of 3.5 lakh commuters use Metro trains daily. “Several apartments have come up near city metro station but the entrance near the Prestige apartments in Gopalapura is shut. Hence, we have to walk even further, which is an inconvenience.
You should try to want to move commuters faster and since public money has been put into building these entrances, it’s not fair to keep them shut,” said Swathi Agarwal, a resident of ETA apartments.Chavan also added that, “Planning and Constructions is done with future requirements of horizon years and not on short-term basis.” While the footfall may be less now, it is expected to increase in the future.