Bengaluru metro offers a rough ride to the elderly

BENGALURU: For Bhavana Prakash, a second-division assistant at Vidhana Soudha, the opening of Metro rail stations near her home and office a few months ago should have been comforting. Except, Prakash, 32, is pregnant and filled with dread.
The Dr BR Ambedkar Metro Station near the Vidhana Soudha is built underground. Which means Prakash, in the absence of an escalator to reach down to the trains, has to labour through a long flight of stairs.

The machine, meant for elderly, pregnant or disabled persons, is locked because of a shortage of guards to monitor its usage. An escalator to carry passengers up to the exit is operational.

“The station is full of people during the evenings and people get down the stairs very fast. I feel scared to walk down the stairs and the steps are too deep,“ says Prakash, a resident of Vijayanagar. “There are many senior citizens and physically handicapped people, too, who face this problem.“

Bengaluru's Metro rail authority completed the 18.22-km east-west corridor nearly six months ago, ending delays that had stretched several years. When the stations were finally opened to the public on April 30, many basic facilities, including toilets and parking, were unavailable to commuters.

Five of the stations are underground -near Cubbon Park, the Vidhana Soudha, the city civil court complex, the Majestic (or Kempegowda) bus station and the city railway station-and are part of the first phase of a 42km stretch.

UA Vasanth Rao, general manager (finance) at Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation, said his office was aware of the problem and planned to install escalators shortly “so that it will be easy for everyone.“

Sanjeev V Dyamannavar, a member of citizens group Praja RAAG, suggested that the lack of facilities at the Metro stations was because of the many delays that had added to the project cost. “All the estimations of BMRCL have gone wrong,“ he said.“They are unable to give quality service to commuters.“