Bengaluru commuters will face a disruption in their daily travel routine as train services on two stretches of the Purple Line will be curtailed from 5 am to 7 am for a month. The Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has announced that this temporary schedule change will be in effect from July 10 to August 9, 2023.
The reason behind the curtailment is to facilitate signaling and other essential works between Byappanahalli and KR Puram. The Byappanahalli-KR Puram corridor is the missing link in the Purple Line, which is yet to open for commercial operations. Under Phase II of Namma Metro, BMRCL extended the Purple Line from Byappanahalli to Whitefield. While the 13.75-kilometer line from KR Puram to Whitefield has been open for public use, around 2 kilometers of the line from Byappanahalli to KR Puram could not be opened due to a delay in the construction of an open web girder across the Benniganahalli railway track.
BMRCL has set a revised deadline to open the entire Purple Line, from Kengeri to Whitefield, by August. To complete signaling and other works on the extended Purple Line, train services in the morning hours will be curtailed. Metro staff will only be able to carry out these works after midnight, as the last train terminates at Byappanahalli at midnight. Once the works are completed, BMRCL will conduct trial runs of trains on the extended Purple Line.
During the curtailment period, scheduled train services will be available between Kengeri and SV Road from 5 am to 7 am. After 7 am, trains will operate from Byappanahalli to Kengeri and KR Puram to Whitefield until 11 pm, as usual.
The missing link between KR Puram and Byappanahalli has caused inconvenience for commuters. Since the KR Puram-Whitefield Metro stretch opened for the public, an average of 30,000 passengers have been using the line per day. However, due to the missing link, commuters have had to rely on feeder bus services or other transportation modes to reach KR Puram station after disembarking at Byappanahalli.
This temporary disruption in metro services is a necessary step to complete the pending construction and signaling works on the extended Purple Line. BMRCL assures commuters that normal services will resume after the works are concluded. In the meantime, commuters are advised to plan their journeys accordingly, taking alternative transport options into consideration.
Overall, this partial suspension of metro services aims to improve the transportation infrastructure of Bengaluru and provide a seamless commute for residents once the entire Purple Line is open for public use.
