Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore

Bangalore, Sep 7: The senior citizen’s forum in the city have complained against the metro stations in the city terming them to be ‘inhospitable’ and ‘unfriendly’ with no built-in seating arrangements nor medical facilities in the station premises.

As per the complaint, the Reach I Metro stations connecting MG Road to Byppanahalli, even though they live up to international standards, do not have basic facilities.

The soon to be inaugurated Reach I of the Metro has six stations on its 6.7km stretch between MG Road and Byappanahalli. And each station can accommodate more than 40,000 passengers.

More over the BMRCL has now announced that people who are found unnecessarily waiting at the stations will be subjected to a fine.

A Shankar, signaling and ticketing in-charge, BMRCL said, "We don't want passengers to wait at the stations. We want to maintain a floating crowd of passengers and this is why we don't have seating arrangements. Commuters will be fined for overstaying at the stations.”

The BMRCL rule states that after purchasing a token, a passenger would be allowed to stay inside the station premises for only 20 minutes within the non-paid area and for two hours in the paid area, including the total journey time. A fine would be imposed if this time limit is exceeded.

Also M N Sreehari, advisor to the Government for Traffic, Transport and Infrastructure, said that Bangalore metro has become more of a passenger ‘unfriendly’ service. Not only do the stations lack passenger facilities but also does not have parking lots.

With cases of serious medical emergencies at Metro stations in Delhi, the body has now introduced medical counters within the station premises.  But the BMRCL does not seem to take any step in that direction instead donned an indifferent attitude.
 
BMRCL spokesperson Ravi Prakash said, "No. We have no plans of introducing separate medical counters. However, all customer care centers at stations will have first-aid boxes with them. We will put up a full list of hospital numbers for the convenience of customers."

In addition to all this, passengers would have to pay at least Rs 5 to use toilet within its premises.

Sources say that the BMRCL had no plans of constructing restroom also but had to succumb to mounting public pressure to incorporate this facility. Now the restrooms are on a pay-and-use basis and are installed only at MG Road and Ulsoor stations.