A Tale of 4 Indian Railways and Namma Metro Stations

 It was a Weekend Holiday and my son had been insisting on taking him on a Bus ride for quite some time. While he doesn’t necessarily love trains, he is still okay with riding the metros as they are clean, modern and efficient. I had been waiting to ride the new isolated Namma Metro line between KR Pura and Whitefield. Since, my spouse was busy with a virtual seminar of 3 hours, I thought, it was a perfect escapade for the father-son duo.

 

After a week of constant rains, we had seen some sunlight in Bengaluru. While it doesn’t take too much for the weather to get gloomy again, we placed our bets on a short ride without getting drenched in rains. I packed my bag with 2 bottles of water, one umbrella and some biscuits.

 

We took our TVS Wego to Baiyyapanahalli (Integrated station of Indian Railways (IR) and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL)) and parked in the IR Parking lot. We used the lone FOB which connects the 2 stations to pass through both the stations at Concourse level and head to the other side of the station. You might think, why did we cross both the stations. Well, the metro trains are still a month away to get a direct connection to Whitefield (WFD) from Baiyyapanahalli (BYPL). The trial runs on this missing link of the Purple Line have just started. Once commissioned, many IT parks of Whitefield will get a direct and easy connection to core areas of Bengaluru. At BYPL, maintenance depot is getting more lines for the future Blue Lines. Work seems to be at a good pace.

 

As we come down the concourse level, we have the BMTC’s Vayu Vajra (Volvo 8400) buses waiting as Metro Feeder (MF1) for the interim connection. Nirvaan had a wide smile on his face. We quickly took the window seat as more and more commuters alighting at the current vertex of Purple Line were coming and boarding the bus for their onward journey to KR Pura. This meagre 3 km distance costs us Rs 20 in AC bus and after a 5 minute wait we head towards KR Pura.

 

After negotiating a narrow Old Madras Road RUB (One side of this RUB, has been taken up by K-Ride to add additional railway tracks for the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project which will connect the line coming from Salem to BYPL via a new Double line ramp and then move towards Yelahanka/KIA Airport over a Double decker transit system which includes K-ride on Level 1 and Namma Metro Blue Line on Level 2)

 

After our bus jostled for space under the narrow RUB, we reach under the Jyotipura Metro Station which is receiving the final touches and thus narrowing down the road and reducing our speed. We cross the dreaded Tin Factory Junction which is the start of the ramp of the KR Puram hanging ROB pretty easily. Nirvaan was having a field day counting the buses on the road. As we pass the IR’s KR Puram Railway Station, the feeder bus makes a U turn under the KR Puram ROB and deposits us very close to the KR Pura Metro station.

 

 

This will be the future interchange between Purple lines coming from Whitefield and Blue Lines coming from Silkboard (Phase 2A) while heading to the International Airport in Phase 2B. The connection between KR Pura and KR Puram still hasn’t been completed and if you plan to carry luggage across the busy street then Good Luck!

 

We take a Rs 35 Single journey ticket from KR Pura to Whitefield (WFD) from the Concourse level and head to Platform 2 which is currently being used for isolated runs. Soon enough a Green Line rake arrives from WFD and Nirvaan is quick to point out, why is it running on the Purple Line. BMRCL has been using the rakes interchangeably across the 2 lines. Soon we depart KR Pura and take a ramp and cross over the under construction Blue Line towards Silkboard with ease. The IR tracks run parallel to Purple Line for quite some distance on the left side. We cross some long and tongue twisting station names. I was having fun in asking Nirvaan to read them out. We had now crossed tracks and at the next station other platform had another metro towards KR Pura waiting for us to clear tracks. Phoenix Market City, VR Bengaluru and Decathlon all went past in a breeze. Ride quality was good, and being an isolated section, crowd was as good as nil. It will realize its full potential on completing the missing link. While IR tracks from KR Puram run straight to WFD with a Hoodi Halt in between, Namma Metro take a circuitous route to reach WFD, understandably so to cater to the local needs. We also had a station called “Hoodi” which is almost 800-1000mtrs from IR station. Don’t plan to interchange here though. We were now passing through the IT Parks, Warehouses and 5 Star Hotels which cater to the localities. We also crossed the Park Square Mall which is very close to where my cousin stays.

 

Then, we slowed down to see a mesh of elevated tracks heading to the Kadugodi Metro Depot which is yet to be operational. Once complete, Purple Line trains will be stationed here and BYPL will cater to only Blue Line. Again, crossing the tracks, we finally entered Whitefield Metro station which ends just like the Mumbai Metro station of Ghatkopar. (without crossing the IR tracks).

 

It was 13:20 and while we were in the metro, Nirvaan wanted to have biscuits. I had to deny it as eating and drinking is prohibited. I was planning something impromptu. A quick check on NTES App indicated that there was a Bangarpet-SBC MEMU with a scheduled departure of 13:26 from WFD and it was running late by 20 minutes. This was good enough time for us to exit WFD Metro station, buy IR Tickets and get to the platform.

 

Little did I know about the lack of co-ordination between BMRCL and IR. Metro station ends at the west end of the platform and its not connected to IR station like BYPL. So, you have to come down the metro station, take a zig zag ramp at west end of the station which seemed to have no connections to the platforms and just ended across the platforms on the other side. It had a narrow extension towards the other middle FOB (a good 150-200-meter walk) only to realize that this Middle FOB only connects the 2 island platforms. We took the risk of getting off on Platform without tickets and walk a further 100 meters on the platform to take the third FOB and reach outside the station and buy tickets. Nirvaan was cursing me by now as I was making him literally run as we were losing time. We took a ticket to SBC at Rs 10/- before taking another flight of stairs to return back to the platform. The poor boy was exhausted by now and to pacify him, I bought him Snickers from the lone shop on the island platform. The delay in the MEMU kept increasing and we spent almost 20 more minutes on this station before the MEMU with a CR rake arrived. By now, Nirvaan had finished the Snickers and drank water.

 

MEMU was sparsely crossed and I helped him to a window seat. We had taken a ticket to SBC as Nirvaan wanted to visit the underground Metro station of Majestic after alighting at SBC and take the Purple line back to BYPL. Well, I was in for the ride, but Nirvaan had lost his patience with the amount of walk, I had made him take in quick succession. MEMU picked up speed and reached Hoodi Halt in a breeze. After a brief stop we again picked up speed to catch up with the Purple line on viaducts running parallel to IR lines. As we entered KR Puram Station, Nirvaan said, “Can we stop now? “. It was time to put “Plan B” in place. I said we can get off at BYPL (next station), in 5 minutes. He agreed.

 

As we left KR Puram, I was able to show him Plasser Machines and Camping coaches on the sidelines, followed by the Channasandra Triangle which had a train on the BYPL to Yelahanka arm. Quadrupling work is in progress on the SBC-WFD section and without much effort, we reached BYPL. Another set of stairs had to be taken for the exit from the station to the parking lot. A 15-minute scooter ride deposited us back home. We were both hungry and tired. After a delicious lunch we head to the bedroom for an afternoon power nap.

 

I am sure once the missing link is ready, the travel will be a lot better for residents of Whitefield but BMRCL and IR need to seriously consider the plight of its commuters and look at better integration of its stations from commuter perspective. More so, as K-Ride which is making the Bengaluru Suburban Section, it will have more integrated stations. Success of any public sector infrastructure project finally depends on last mile connectivity and commuter friendliness.