Bangalore Metro’s long awaited 4.8 km east-west underground section with 5 stations finally got inaugurated yesterday in a massive event organized in front of the Vidhana Soudha building!

The event was marked by run of the mill speeches from India’s Union Minister, Venkaiah Naidu, and Karnataka’s Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, who talked about the remaining sections of Phase 1, and about the upcoming Phase 2 and Phase 3. Soon after, they flagged off the first train from the stage and then proceeded to head down to the Vidhana Soudha station to take a ride on the next train.

The inauguration of this crucial section between MG Road and Magadi Road has made the network 30.3 km long, and more importantly helped to bridge the gap between Reach 1 (Baiyappanahalli – MG Road) and Reach 2 (Magadi Road – Mysore Road) on which the BMRCL had till now been operating stand-alone/fragmented services. Read more about that here and view the new fare chart of the 18.1 km Purple line here.

Bengaluru: Underground metro line flagged off from Vidhana Soudha metro station pic.twitter.com/oRz5pgjFvm — ANI (@ANI_news) April 29, 2016

By the time you’re reading this, commercial services on Saturday morning have already started from either end of the line! If you’re in Bangalore, do take a ride on the metro this weekend and hop off at the Vidhana Soudha station to check out a temporary display of construction images lined up on the concourse level:

Congrats to everyone in #Bangalore, BMRCL & its contractors! Special congrats to @uavasanthrao who’s the only Indian metro official here. — The Metro Rail Guy (@TheMetroRailGuy) April 29, 2016

• 30.3/42.3km PH1 & entire 18.1km Purple Line is now OP

• #Bangalore‘s network has overtaken Kolkata’s→Now 2nd largest

• 4th Indian UG metro — The Metro Rail Guy (@TheMetroRailGuy) April 29, 2016

Before you leave, check out:

Have you taken a ride yet? Leave a comment below!

For more updates & images, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!

– TMRG