BENGALURU: The opening up of Metro's Mysuru Road-Kengeri Line could play a crucial role in making daily commute of office goers between Mysuru and neighbouring towns and Bengaluru faster and comfortable. However, it is crucial to put in place infrastructure for easy pedestrian access between the new Metro stations and the railway stations in their vicinity.
While the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) stresses that regular commuters between Bengaluru and Mysuru and those residing enroute will benefit enormously as the road traffic on Mysuru Road can be bypassed using Metro, those expected to use them think infrastructure for it is sorely missing.
Detailing the issues when interchanging between different modes of transport, S. Yogendra, rail activist and a member of Mysuru Grahakara Parishat Users told The New Indian Express, “The Jnanabharati Metro and railway stations are connected but there are only a few trains that stop at this station. The two Metro stations of Kengeri Bus Terminal as well as Kengeri as well as Nayandahalli are not connected with their respective railway stations which are at a distance of nearly 800 metres from each other. The road to be crossed to access them is narrow, unhygienic and dangerous too.” An option that can be considered by Railways is upgrading the Jnanabharati railway station to help commuters interchange easily here, he added.
A senior railway official said that 30 pairs of trains ply between KSR and Mysuru daily. “Of them 25 pairs stop at Kengeri while two pairs of MEMU trains stop at Jananabharati railway station,” he said.
The Kengeri Bus Terminal Metro station is just 100 metres away from its Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) Kengeri TTMC bus stand which has one Karnataka State Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bay but there is no connecting bridge as of now. Anjum Parwez, BMRCL Managing Director said, “We are ready with the designs and will be putting up a Foot Over Bridge at the earliest as soon as the line becomes operational. Multi-modal integration is a priority for Metro.”
B T Prabhakar Reddy, Chief Traffic Manager (Operations), KSRTC, said, “We will be keenly watching the travel pattern as soon as the line starts. If running of more buses in the direction towards Mysuru is required, we will introduce them soon. Buses from Mysuru Road Satellite Bus Terminal towards Kengeri run with 70% occupancy and there is space to take on more commuters. We can even consider starting and terminating buses from Kengeri.
40 feeder buses
BMTC will be introducing 30 feeder buses (30-seats) and 10 regular buses along the Mysuru Road-Kengeri Line, said a senior official. “At present, the feeder routes planned are between RR Nagar and interior areas, Jnanabharati and surroundings and Kengeri towards Bidadi and two other directions from here. These will only be short distance buses. In addition, 10 regular buses will be introduced to cater to the expected traffic in the area. The detailed list will be released in a day.”