
Starting Monday, a total of 18 six-car trains will run on the Nagasandra-Yelachenahalli route or the Green Line of Bengaluru Metro as four more trains have been added to the fleet. With this, the metro rail authorities said that 97% of all 88 round trips during weekdays on the Green Line will be met by six-coach trains.
Until June 2018, all Namma Metro trains plying in the city consisted of three coaches with a total capacity of 975 passengers at a given time. The six-car train, in comparison, can accommodate as many as 2,000 passengers.
The addition of bigger trains will bring much-needed relief to the commuters of the Green Line, especially during the peak hours.
The Purple Line (Baiyappanahalli to Mysuru Road) has been running 18 six-car trains since September 2019.
Metro authorities added they are likely to meet the March 2020 deadline to ready 12 more six-car trains for the two lines.
The first compartment is reserved for women in all six-car trains. The additional capacity is also expected to increase the average daily ridership of the Bengaluru metro, which is now below the 5 lakh mark across the Purple and Green Lines.
According to a section of activists, there was a delay in deploying six-car trains due to improper planning by the metro authority as cost estimates were only made accounting for three-car trains in the initial stage. While the initial cost was borne by the state and Union government equally, the additional expenditure to acquire more six-car trains or upgrade existing the rakes to six-car trains were only provided by the state government, which led to the delay. This delay has partially arrested the ridership growth of the metro, they argue.