Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi who inaugurated the 13.71 km Whitefield (Kadugodi)-to-Krishnarajapuram Metro Line in Bengaluru took a joy ride with the Metro rail staff, metro construction workers and students. The metro line stretch thrown open on Saturday has 12 stations and was built at a cost of Rs 4,249 crore.
Modi along with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai collected tickets from the ticket counter and cleared the security check just like any other metro user would do to board the metro train. He was also seen interacting with the workers involved in the construction of the metro, metro rail staff and students during the short ride.
According to the officials, the newly inaugurated metro line is a section of the 15.81 km long eastern extension to the East-West Corridor (Purple Line) from Baiyappanahalli to Whitefield Station. The 13.71 km section from K R Puram to Whitefield was inaugurated on Saturday and the metro line would shorten the journey time on this route by 40 per cent and will also reduce road traffic congestion.
The officials added that the new Metro line would help around five lakh to six lakh employees of tech parks, malls, hospitals, export promotion industrial areas and several Fortune 500 companies. Five trains of six coaches each, bought from BEML Limited, would be operated on this route, the officials said, adding that more trains would be kept as buffer stock.
Earlier last month, Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that Vande Metro train will be made operational in Karnataka soon on the lines of Vande Bharat. The Railway Minister made the statement during a video interaction with various divisional railway officials of Karnataka at the board's Bangalore office
