Bangaloreans hop onto Metro for joy ride

BANGALORE: Hundreds of Bangaloreans Thursday evening hopped onto the sleek

air-conditioned coaches of the Metro rail for a joy ride and get a

bird's eye view of the tech hub as the service was opened to commuters

for the first time.Even an hour before the scheduled start of

the service at 4 p.m. after its formal inaugural-run earlier in the day,

about 200-300 commuters, mostly youth, queued up at the ticket counters

outside the six stations between M.G. Road in downtown and

Baiyappannahalli in the eastern suburb to be among the first to board

the train on both directions."Instead of taking an autorickshaw

to M.G. Road, I decided to take the Metro. It feels great to travel on

the first day of the service. It was fast, smooth, comfortable and

noiseless. I reached the destination in 10 minutes paying just Rs.10 in

contrast to 25-30 minutes an autorickshaw would have taken at Rs.60," a

beaming M. Radhika, a homemaker, told IANS.The hype built up in

the run-up to the Metro inauguration and wide publicity in the

electronic and print media about the launch date had made the Metro the

talk of the town though its Reach-1 covers only 6.7 km towards the

eastern suburb from the city centre."I was curious to see the

swanky stations and get a feel of riding in the Metro as I have been

reading about it and seeing on the news channels. When a couple of

classmates decided to board the Metro, I too joined them and took a ride

from M.G. Road to Indiranagar," S. Dayanand, a 17-year-old

pre-university course (PUC) student, said."It was fun and a

great experience to commute so fast and above the city though high-rise

buildings flanking the double tracks were distracting. Shanties and

slums around Halasuru station were an eyesore," said the student. As

sun set and the illuminated stations stood out shining in all glory,

more and more commuters took the elevators to reach the raised platforms

for their turn to hop onto the Metro.Earlier, Union Railway

Minister Dinesh Trivedi termed the unveiling of the Metro service as a

'Deepavali' gift to Bangaloreans, who put up with hardships during the

prolonged project construction which ruined roads and footpaths and

disturbed the serene atmosphere of many areas."Deepavali has

come very early to Bangalore, rather a week before the festival of

lights. Today (Thursday) is Deepavali for Bangaloreans," he said at the

inagural event.Many evening shoppers and outsiders, including a

few tourists who were in the central business district, also took the

Metro for fun. It is the first of its kind service in south India.