Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday flagged off the first six-car metro on the Green Line of the Namma Metro running between Nagasandra in the north and Yelachenahalli in the south of a Bengaluru. On the same day, two more six-car trains were added to the Purple Line which connects Mysore Road and Byapanahalli.
Before Monday, three existing six-car trains were running on the Purple Line. Until June 2018, all the metros running in Bengaluru were of three coaches leading to extreme cramping in peak hours. The six-car trains have a capacity of 2,000 passengers and are currently deployed in peak office hours to prevent cramping. The capacity of three-car trains is 975 passengers at a given time.
BMRCL officials said that the new six-car trains, when compared to the existing trains, are energy efficient by 15% and can automatically regulate temperature by sensing the ambient temperature.
Other than this the new trains will also have remote isolation features for Variable Voltage & Variable Frequency (VVVF) Inverter through Train Management System along with Pendant Control Operation (Hostler mode) to move individual three units of six car train set on self-power (unique feature) in case of emergency. Other unique features of these trains include split screen in LCD panel in continuous advertisement display without disturbing the passenger information, remote downloading of train data for maintenance purpose.
With these additions of six-car trains, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited expects the ridership to increase to five lakh from an average ridership of daily average ridership of four lakh passengers along its total 42-km network.
While the first coach is reserved for women passengers for six-car trains, the first two gates of three-car trains are for women-only. Top officials of the BMRCL expect that in future when all the metros in the city will be converted to six-car trains, such segregation won’t be required.
By September, all 50 trains of Namma Metro will be converted to a six-car train.