Relief for Bengaluru commuters as wait for Yellow Line Metro now reduced to 19 minutes

BENGALURU: Commuters on Namma Metro's Yellow Line can finally breathe a little easy during rush hour. Starting Wednesday, with the addition of a fourth rake to the route, trains will be available at 19-minute intervals, instead of the current 25 minutes.BMRCL had started operations on the Yellow Line with just three rakes on August 11. The Yellow Line has been drawing more than 60,000 passengers daily, leading to packed coaches and chaotic scenes at the R V Road interchange. Security staff often struggled to manage the crowds, with barricades placed on platforms to prevent mishaps.

With the addition of an extra train set, BMRCL now hopes to ease the passenger load and allow a smoother ride, particularly on the Electronics City-R V Road stretch. The addition of a fourth rake will also allow BMRCL to start the service earlier on weekdays: From 6 am, instead of 6:30 am. Sundays, though, will see no change, with the service continuing to start at 7 am. Last train timings will also remain unchanged: 11:55 pm from R V Road and 10:42 pm from Bommasandra. A senior BMRCL official said: "September 10 was the deadline for deploying a fourth train. To meet the mandatory 750 km mainline operations [for service induction], we conducted trial runs on Monday and Tuesday."

The official further said the fourth train set will ease crowding, especially at R V Road station. "However, a 19-minute interval is still quite long. So, we're working to bring in more trains soon," he added.Bogie Supply DelaysA fifth train set for the Yellow Line is expected to be dispatched from Titagarh Rail Systems, West Bengal, by mid-September. However, supply delays of bogies from China will affect the manufacturing timeline for subsequent train sets. Despite demands to have the bogies airdropped for faster delivery, officials confirmed it was not feasible due to logistical constraints. The bogies for the sixth train set are scheduled to ship from China on Sept 14, with an estimated arrival in Kolkata after three weeks. "Delay in supply of bogies will impact delivery of sixth train by at least three weeks. Production of the seventh train set will also be impacted," the official said, adding: "The line requires at least eight trains to achieve a 10-minute frequency."