Namma Metro on Friday recorded the highest ridership of 4.58 lakh passengers on a single day, surpassed earlie... Read More

BENGALURU: Namma Metro on Friday recorded the highest ridership of 4.58 lakh passengers on a single day, surpassed earlier records of 4.53 lakh on August 14 and April 5 (4.52 lakh).

BMRCL records show Purple Line ferried 2.49 lakh passengers while Green Line saw 2.09 lakh on Friday. The revenue collection was Rs 1.09 crore, including Rs 54.25 lakh (Purple Line) and 54.81 lakh (Green Line). Green Line has higher revenue as it covers larger distance. However, the 18.2-km Purple Line has higher ridership than the 24.2-km Green Line.

Sources say the long weekend due to Ganesh Chaturthi and introduction of six-car trains are the main reasons for rise in ridership. BMRCL has converted 22 of 50 trains from three to six coaches. Of these, 17 six-car trains are on Purple Line and 2 on Green Line.

“We thank our commuters, who are our patrons in achieving these milestones and looking forward to serve them with pleasure (sic),” tweeted BMRCL on Saturday. BMRCL is hoping that ridership will touch five lakh once all trains are converted to six coaches. However, all trains will get six coaches only by March 2020.

Responding to the tweet, Abhishek Ab, a netizen, tweeted: “After 5th June Twitter handle is active today.. Nice to see the record ridership on Namma Metro (sic)”. Vasudeva, another passenger, tweeted: “Commuters are scared to use metro as coaches are overcrowded. Frequency and additional 6coach trains need to increase to attract further passengers. It should be safe and pleasant ride on #nammametro (sic)”.

TOI had carried an article titled 'Social media-shy BMRCL ignores netizens’ queries; last tweet was on June 5' on August 22.

