After the entirety of the Bengaluru purple metro line from Whitefield to (Kadugodi) in the east to Challaghatta in the west, was fully constructed Indiranagar became one of the busiest metro stations with a daily footfall of 29,729 after Majestic station (41,803). Bengaluru metro is the second busiest metro station after the Delhi metro and has around 7 lakh commuters every day.
source: Deccan Herald
According to the statistics revealed by the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) based on October 10 ridership figures Bayapanahalli had been the second busiest station after the Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda interchange station. However, since the operational network has now expanded to 73.8 km and the stations extended to Whitefield people who used to get down in the Bayapanahalli station and catch a bus to go further now use the newly updated metro services. On October 9, the entire Purple Line began operations, covering a total of 43.49 km. Hence, after the extension of the Byappanahalli-Whitefield section, the station lost its primary position. Currently, Byappanahalli is still the third busiest station with a daily footfall of 23,327 passengers, followed by MG Road (22,914) and Vijayanagar (21,352).
source: Times Now
Indiranagar, along with multiple pubs and restaurants, also has residential areas as well as the Embassy Golf Links Business Park and offices on Intermediate Ring Road (IRR), Old Airport Road, and in Koramangala, leading to the large number of passengers using this station. Revathy Ashok, CEO and managing trustee at Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC), an NGO, stated that the govt. Should now be focusing on setting up bus services at the metro stations for last-mile access from metro stations to rural areas. “Feeder bus services have recently started from KR Pura Metro Station to the tech corridor Outer Ring Road, but this should be extended to other stations as well, “Similarly, Cubbon Park Station should have improved feeder bus connectivity to Commercial Street, Infantry Road, Vasant Nagar and Shivaji Nagar,” stated Revathy.
source: Times of India
Surprisingly, Nagasandra has the most number of footfalls compared to the other three terminal stations showing that very few passengers take end-to-end trips. The metro’s Purple Line spans 43.49 km (37 stations), connecting Challaghatta to Whitefield in 82 minutes by Metro. While the completion of the Purple Line has made it convenient for passengers to commute daily and brought relief to passengers the six-coach trains are now getting overcrowded leading the commuters to wait in long queues every day. Shankar said there are no immediate plans to install platform screen doors at the existing stations. The BMCRL stated that they have deployed additional security guards at stations to manage the crowd.
According to BMRCL, they are operating train services from Whitefield to Pattandur Agrahara every 10 minutes. They also run short-loop services from Patandur Agrahara to Mysuru Road every five minutes, from Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Station (Majestic) to MG Road every three minutes during morning peak hours, and from Mysuru Road to Challaghatta every 10 minutes.
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