BENGALURU: Two visually challenged students escaped unhurt after they fell on the tracks of Platform 3 of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Interchange Metro Station on Monday afternoon.
With guide canes in their hands, they stepped into the tracks mistaking them to be the platform floor, said one of them.
A top official said this was the first incident involving visually challenged persons after Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited commenced operations in October 2011. S Yogesh, 22, M Bhuvan, 18, and Ravikumar, 20, visually challenged students from Bengaluru, took a Green Line train from Jayanagar station to Attiguppe. Bhuvan, a first-year BCom student of Vijaya College, and Yogesh, who is doing a computer course at Dr Reddy’s Foundation, fell into the tracks after getting down at Nadaprabhu Kempegowda. Ravikumar is a final year BBA student of St Paul’s College.
Citizens demand platform screen doors at Metro stations
Chief Public Relations Officer of BMRCL BL Yashvanth Chavan said, “The trio planned to change over to the Purple Line at Kempegowda station to go to Atiguppe. After they got down at Platform 3 at 1.13 pm and the train left, two of them went to the wrong side of the platform and fell down. Our security staff immediately pressed the emergency trip system button and brought train operations on the Green Line to a halt. With the help of other passengers, Bhuvan and Yogesh were rescued from the tracks.”
Metro services resumed by 1.26 pm after the incident.
After the incident went viral on social media, many demanded that platform screen doors be installed at all Metro platforms to avert such incidents. Chavan said discussions on installation of such doors have been held.