BENGALURU: Bowing to public pressure, the Green Line extension from Nagasandra to Madavara was opened on November 7 without a formal inauguration.
However, over three weeks down the line, there does not seem to be much enthusiasm to use this segment as average daily ridership figures reveal only one-fourth of the patronage Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited had estimated.
The three stations of Manjunath Nagar, Chikkabidarakallu and Madavara (BIEC) dot this 3.14-km line with Madavara now serving as the new terminal station of the Northern end of the Green Line. Residents of apartments dotting these stations as well as the public from nearby areas like Nelamangala, Madanayakanahalli, Anchepalya and Makali were expected to use them.
BMRCL had issued a statement on the eve of the launch stating that they were expecting a daily ridership of 44,000. The average daily number of commuters boarding at these three stations comes to 11 303, based on the data from Nov 7 till 30, shared with TNIE by BMRCL.
As expected, Madavara, located bang in front of BIEC has the best daily ridership of the three with 6,642 commuters. Chikkabidarakallu had 3,649 riders while Manjunath Nagar had 1,011, the data reveals.
A senior BMRCL official said the additional ridership has helped the entire network of Bengaluru Metro running to 76.95 km consistently average above eight lakh commuters daily.
“We even had 8.69 lakh and 8.7 lakh commuters respectively on Wednesday and Thursday of the last week of November,“ he said.
The initiatives taken by BIEC is doing its best to publicise usage of Metro trains by visitors to its events have helped. said its Senior Director and Head of Marketing at BIEC Ubaid Ahmed
The moment one opens the BIEC website, this line pops up, “Namma Metro is operational from BIEC, commuters can have a faster travel experience.”
“We had two events in November post the launch of the new stretch and we urged our organisers to put in place shuttle bus services to help their delegates reach the exhibition halls of BIEC. It is a 300-metre stretch only from Madavara station to reach us but since many delegates might carry luggage, it would help them. Our efforts to publicise them plus the initiative taken by the organisers have made many use the Metro to reach our events,” he said.
The Confederation of Indian Industry’s Green Building Congress was held from November 14 to 16 while the Grace Hopper celebration 2024 was held from November 21 to 22. There are three events scheduled for December and more numbers are expected to use it to reach BIEC.
Another official said, “These are only the initial weeks following the launch. It will pick up over time.”