Bengaluru's metro stations on the Purple Line saw a huge influx of travellers on Monday, October 9, as the much-awaited metro services on the Challaghatta-Whitefield corridor finally became accessible. The 2.1-km Baiyappanahalli to KR Pura section, and the 2.05-km Kengeri to Challaghatta section were both thrown open to the public, offering relief from long commutes and traffic problems. The journey from Challaghatta to Whitefield takes approximately one hour and 20 minutes and costs Rs 60 by metro, while it takes over two hours by road.
With this extension, the Purple Line network of the Bengaluru metro now stretches from Whitefield in the east to Challaghatta in the west, covering a total distance of 42.85 km. Public transport enthusiasts rushed to the metro as early as 5 am to experience the metro running the full length of the route from Challaghatta to Whitefield.
Ravindra, a techie who regularly travels to Whitefield all the way from Vijayanagar in west Bengaluru, told TNM that the finished purple line saves him 20 to 30 minutes of travel time. Others working in the various IT companies located around Whitefield also boarded the metro and took to social media to share their experiences.
While the KR Pura to Whitefield stretch was inaugurated in March 2023, it was not connected to the rest of the purple line terminating at Baiyappanahalli. This was due to the stretch between Baiyappanahalli and KR Pura passing over Indian Railways tracks, for which an Open Web Girder had to be installed. The process for getting the necessary permissions, installation of the OWG, and the subsequent safety checks are what led to the delay in completing the missing link. Due to this missing link (between Baiyappanahalli and KR Pura), metro users were earlier forced to use feeder buses or other transport facilities to cover the distance between the two stations.