Bengaluru’s Namma Metro’s popularity soars, records highest ever ridership

Bengaluru’s Namma Metro achieved another record on Wednesday, clocking its highest ever ridership of just a little under 4.5 lakh passengers. While the Purple Line recorded a ridership of 2.43 lakh passengers, the Green Line saw just over 2.05 lakh passengers. This brought Wednesday’s ridership to 4.49 lakh.

The previous record highest ridership was registered on September 9 with a total ridership of 4,36,693 passengers. The announcement was made by Namma Metro’s Chief Public Relation Officer UA Vasanth Rao on Twitter on Thursday.

Bengaluru’s metro rail link in its present form runs a service of 42 km in the city with the Green Line between Nagasandra and Yelachenahalli spanning 24.22 km, and the Purple Line between Byappanahalli and Mysuru Road running 18.08 km.  

Before September 9, Namma Metro saw a record ridership of almost 1 lakh people more than its  then average ridership on August 13. Experts attributed the spike in ridership then to the Lalbagh Annual Flower



Show.

In one year (between June 18, 2017 and June 16, 2018), the BMRCL has recorded 12,29,49,982 (12 crore) individual journeys, with an average daily ridership of 3,36,849. However with the introduction of the first six car metro in June, and later a second six coach car in October, the ridership in the metro has steadily been increasing. Both the six car trains have been inducted in the Purple Line.

According to the original detailed project report (DPR), the Namma Metro Phase 1 can cater to 8 lakh people daily with all six car trains with a three minute headway.

The Bengaluru metro train service was inaugurated in 2011 in a short stretch between MG Road and Byappanahalli.  By June 2019, BMRCL expects to have 50-six car trains.

The metro is set to expand its network further in the city, with Phase 2 already being approved.

There are two more proposed lines, Yellow and Red, which will connect stretches between RV Roa and Bommasandra (19.143 km) and Gottigere and Nagawara (21.415 km) respectively.