It's about time: Bengaluru’s Majestic metro and bus stand gets connected

A new footover bridge will allow pedestrians to traverse between the bus terminuses and metro station.

news Public Transport

The foot-over bridge connecting the metro station with the bus

terminuses of BMTC, KSRTC at the Nadaprabhu Hiriya Kempegowda Metro

Station in Bengaluru’s Majestic was finally inaugurated on Thursday

after missing several deadlines.

More than two years after the metro's operation at Majestic began, the

ceremonial inauguration was attended by Karnataka Chief Minister HD

Kumaraswamy, as well as his deputy and Bengaluru Development Minister

G Parameshwara. Other political leaders present at the event included

local MLA and KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, Bengaluru Central MP PC

Mohan, Mayor Gangambika Mallikarjun and Deputy Mayor Ramila

Umashankar, among others.

According to urban mobility experts, the long-overdue footbridge will

improve ridership in the metro and bus, while reducing the number of

vehicles on the road. Until now, commuters were forced to traverse a

garbage-filled subway or dodge busy traffic crossing the road. The

foot-over bridge connector will shorten the distance by 250 metres.

Although the bridge was said to be completed this past summer, the

inauguration was delayed.

Read: Bengaluru’s Majestic got metro 2 years ago, no bridge linking to railway station yet

The dignitaries also flagged off a second six-coach metro train on the

Purple Line. (As of now, all other metros running in the city have

three cars).

K'taka CM, Deputy CM and Mayor take a metro ride from Vidhan Soudha to Majestic to inaugurate FOB connecting Metro and bus terminus. pic.twitter.com/Mm9fTJNeuw — Soumya Chatterjee (@Csoumya21) October 4, 2018

Read: B’luru finally has a six-car metro but did inaccurate projections delay its procurement?

The metro has been operational at Majestic since April 2016. Later in

June 2017, it became an integration point for the Purple and Green

Line, but the construction for the footbridge connectors between the

different modes of public transport began only in January 2018.

Another footover bridge connecting the Majestic metro station with the

10th platform of the Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna Majestic Railway

Station is in its final stages of construction.

However, a similar issue prevails at Yeshwantpur Metro and Railway

Station, where commuters are forced to cross the road with high

medians to transfer between surface and metro railway.

Sanjeev Dhyamanavar, an urban mobility expert at Prajaa, said, “It is

good to see that finally the Majestic FOB is ready. But the issue in

Yeshwanthpur still needs to be looked into.”

Urban matter experts have previously pointed out that footbridges like

these should have been planned well in advance. They emphasised that

it wasn't just a matter of convenience, but safety as well.

Ashish Verma, an expert on sustainable transportation at the Indian

Institute of Science, had told TNM earlier, “It should have been there

right from the first day the station was built. Why are these things

done as an afterthought? This creates a huge problem for passengers

especially with luggage who are transferring between the two modes of

transport. For them, to cross the road has been a horrible task so

far. It is extremely necessary for the safety point of view. Most of

the metro stations have neglected the pedestrian dispersal system.

It's like 'Once you come out of the metro, you can go to hell'.

Without these you can actually lose a lot of people who will otherwise

use public transport.”