They have become easily identifiable landmarks

Jayavelu P., owner of a photo studio in J.P. Nagar, used to have a tough time telling his clients where his shop was located. But over the past few months, he has found a landmark to help identify his shop easily: metro pillar number 59.

“Earlier, I would ask people to come near a bakery near my studio. But only residents living in the area would identify it. This pillar number makes it easy for everybody to locate my shop,” he said.

Not just shops; the landmark for several apartments and homes is also changing. The trend has gained popularity after Namma Metro’s Green Line stretch between Sampige Road and Yelachenahalli became functional.

This has not only changed the way people are commuting across the city, but also the postal address of several people living along the metro line.

Even the Postal Department has acknowledged this trend and are treating it as an advantage.

S. Shivaram, Chief Postmaster, Bengaluru GPO said including metro pillars would be a big advantage for postmen. “Normally in the postal address people include landmarks such as shops, banks or other establishments. But a postman can identify it easily only if he is familiar with the landmark. But with the pillar numbers included, it will be easily to spot them along the metro line,” he said.

Devaraju S., a postman who works near J.P. Nagar, said he has now increasingly been seeing people tweaking their postal address to to include their pillar number in J.P. Nagar and Yelachenahalli over the past three months.

“I have been working for several years in this area and can locate the house by just glancing at the address once. So this will not serve much purpose for us. But it will certainly help others locate places more easily,” he said.

The other section that is grateful for the new landmark is cab drivers. Madan D., a cab driver, said that the practice has become common in the last few months.

“It is extremely easy to locate if the customer tells the metro pillar number close to their house. They can use a pillar to tell us where to take a u-turn or take a right turn. It becomes very useful as a landmark,” he said, adding that this helps identify and reach his destination quicker.