BENGALURU: The Monday morning peak hour rush at Metro stations along the extended Purple Line got worse due to yet another issue with the overhead electrical wire in the Bengaluru Railway Division, this time near Nayandahalli Halt station. This forced hundreds of passengers rushing for work from Mysuru to Bengaluru on two trains to switch over to the Metro to reach offices on time.
Over 2,000 passengers on board the Chamundi Express (Train no. 16215) and the Mysuru-KSR Bengaluru MEMU (Train no. 06256) were impacted.
There were long queues piling up at Jnanabharati Metro station. A total of 1,200 extra smart cards and tokens were sold at this station alone in the one hour between 9.15 am and 10.15 am, said Chief Public Relations Officer, BMRCL, B L Yashvanth Chavan. "We sold 1153 new cards and 561 tokens during the peak hour today as compared to 500 cards and 75 tokens last Monday," he said. At Kengeri Bus Terminal Metro station, a total of 90 group tickets were sold in order to cope with the rush, he added.
BMRCL Managing Director Anjum Parwez said additional ticketing counters were opened at Metro stations to tackle the surge in passengers.
Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway, Aneesh Hegde said, "An overhead electric wire was found hanging near Nayandahalli halt and the supply was switched. The supply was charged at 9.28 am and within 45 to 50 minutes the traffic was restored along the stretch. The Chamundi came to a stop near Jnanabharathi railway station while the MEMU train came to a halt near Nayandahalli railway station. The problem was set right within 50 minutes."