Bengaluru: Uncertainty over the opening of Yellow Line (R V Road to Bommasandra) of Namma Metro slowly clears as Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) is expected to receive the third set of Metro coaches by mid-May.
On April 29, Titagarh Rail System Ltd dispatched three cars of the third train set from its factory in West Bengal, while the remaining three cars are scheduled to be loaded and transported to Bengaluru by May 2. All six coaches are expected to reach by May 15.
While dispatching the first ‘Made in India’ driverless train sets in the first week of Jan 2025, the company had announced that it would deliver two more train sets by April and ramp up production, delivering two trains a month by Sept 2025. However, it has been almost four months, and BMRCL has not received the third train set for the Yellow Line, which provides a crucial Metro link to the IT corridor, Electronics City.
During a recent interaction, MD of BMRCL, Maheshwar Rao had said there are plans to operationalise the line with three train sets (six coaches each) in mid-May. The official had claimed that necessary sanctions from the commissioner of metro railway safety (CMRS) would be received by the first week of May.
A BMRCL official said, “The CMRS inspections are likely to happen after the arrival of the third train set. Our plan is to open the line by May.”
Full-fledged operations with 15 train sets and running train services with a frequency of 5 to 6 minutes would only happen next year.