The commencement of offline classes since January 1 for students of Class X and IInd year PUC in Bengaluru has brought in a bit of good news for Namma Metro. The ridership, which had been struggling to touch the one lakh figure on a single day after it re-started operations on September 7 post-COVID, has neared the 1.25 lakh ridership mark daily, largely due to the student crowd.
A S Shankar, Executive Director, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), told The New Indian Express, "BMRCL has enthused confidence amongst students who are travelling in Namma Metro after school and college recommencement. The ridership has crossed the 1,25,000 mark in recent days."
Another interesting aspect is Green Line (Line 2) of Phase-I (Yelachenahalli-Nagasandra) which usually lags behind the Purple Line (Baiyappanahalli-Mysore Road) in terms of ridership is almost catching
up or even having an slight edge over the Purple Line, he added.
The surge in ridership has come to the fore last week. Statistics released by BMRCL reveal the following: Jan 15 - 1,22,250 riders (Purple Line: 46435; Green Line: 47002, Kempe Gowda Interchange station: 28,813); Jan 14 (school holiday); Jan 13: 1,27,637 riders (Purple Line: 51,231, Green Line: 50,423 & Interchange stn: 25,983; Jan 12: 1,24,909 riders (Purple Line: 49,361, Green Line: 50,059, Interchange stn: 25,489) and Jan 11: 128362 riders (Purple Line: 50,385, Green Line: 51,379, Interchange: 26,598).
"We were only touching a little over the 1 lakh figure earlier on an average during working days. So, this is a clear indication that the student crowd is contributing to the increase in ridership," Shankar added.
Another Metro official said that the Work From Home trend had impacted its ridership considerably. The newly launched extension line of Green Line, which is a part of Phase-II (Yelachenahalli to Silk Institute)
which was opened for commercial operations on January 15, is expected to boost ridership in the coming days.
Top up Metro card with PayTM now
Shankar also said that one can top up the Smart Card using PayTM. "We rolled out this feature five days ago and commuters have started using it. There is no need to access the Namma Metro app to top up one's
travel card. If one has the PayTM installed, it has an option to top up Metro there," he said.