BENGALURU: Prepping to resume operations under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic with all safety precautions, Namma Metro will facilitate contactless entry at 40 stations. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation has updated its ‘Namma Metro’ app for topping up Metro travel cards. And despite all the screenings and passengers being let in only one by one, Metro authorities are confident that the process will be smooth as they expect only a maximum of 80,000 commuters per day.
A S Shankar, Executive Director, Operations & Maintenance, told The New Indian Express, “Topping- up can be done through the app, on our website or at the Point of Sale machines at every station. The PoS machines will give a printout with a QR code which can be scanned to top up the travel card.
This has been done to ensure no contact between individuals at any point due to the Covid-19 epidemic,” he said. With the first set of Metro trains set to run after a gap of 168 days from the Baiyapannahalli and Mysuru Road stations terminating stations on the Purple Line, at 8 am on Monday,
hectic preparations are on. “We have purchased 45 thermal scanners to check the body temperature of passengers at the 40 stations and they will all be utilised at the entry gates. Only one entrycum- exit gate and an additional exit gate will be opened at most stations for safety purposes,” he said.
400 passengers per train
Shankar said that from September 7 onwards, 91 trips will be run on the Purple Line and 97 trips will be run on the Green Line from September 9. “With a maximum of 400 passengers per train, we do not expect the patronage to cross 80,000 per day until September 11 as we will run only for six hours per day,” he said. However, this will go up when trains will run from 7 am to 9 pm, he added. Metro staff deputed for Covid-19 duties across the city have been recalled and Home Guards have been called for a training programme on Friday, a Metro source said.