BENGALURU: The first Independence Day Flower Show hosted in the city post the opening of the Lalbagh Metro station witnessed over 31,000 visitors on Saturday, the second day after the show was declared open.
Metro’s potential to boost this tourist attraction came to the fore with commuters alighting at Lalbagh station alone touching 23,979 up to 9 pm, an over six-fold increase in ridership over last Saturday.
M Jagadeesh, Joint Director of Horticulture, Lalbagh told Express the response “was very good. While we had around 12,000 visitors on the first day, we had 21,000 adults, 3,000-odd children and 7,000-plus pass holders visiting us today.” The passes were given by the Mysore Horticultural Society to its lifetime members.
“The presence of the Metro station in the vicinity definitely contributed to the big rush on Saturday. We hope to touch 50,000 visitors on Sunday,” he said.
Though he could not provide comparative statistics of visitors on the same day last year, he said, “Metro must have contributed at least one-third of our visitors today.” Security was tight with 100 CCTVs this year, up from 25 last year, Jagadeesh said.
Chief Public Relations Officer, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited, U A Vasanth Rao said, “The ridership figure last Saturday up to 9 pm was 3,890 at Lal Bagh station. It has touched 23,879 at the same time today (August 5).”
“BMRCL had posted additional staff to manage the rush. Many sign boards giving directions to the flower show were put up by us and the Horticulture department,” Rao said.
Public from different corners of the city managed to reach the show, Rao said.
“The presence of large parking facilities at starting stations of Baiyappanahalli, Mysore Road, Yelachenahalli and Nagasandra as well as parking spaces at Banashankari, J P Nagar and a few other stations made it easy for people to park their vehicles and hop on to a Metro. This helped them easily avoid traffic jams that are inevitable near the venue,” he added.