Pedestrian woes hamper Yellow Line metro station access
A reality check by The Hindu at several stations on the new stretch, including Delta Electronics Bommasandra, Hebbagodi, and Electronics City, revealed that access is challenging owing to poor pedestrian infrastructure, long detours to reach foot overbridges (FoBs) or underpasses, and in some cases, blocked bus bays.
500-metre detours for a safe crossing:
Commuters say that apart from R.V. Road station, where there is a pedestrian crossing near the traffic signal, most Yellow Line stations lack direct, safe access for those arriving on foot.
For instance, at Delta Electronics Bommasandra, the nearest FoB or underpass is nearly 400 to 500 metres away, requiring people to walk along and cross the busy Hosur Road highway.
Meanwhile, though a bus stop has been built right at the doorstep of the Bommasandra station by the NHAI, buses continue to halt at the main signal instead, where traffic from multiple directions converges.
Adding to the confusion, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) has placed barricades blocking direct bus entry to the station premises.
For daily commuters, the current arrangement is risky and inconvenient. 'I work at one of the factories in the Bommasandra Industrial Area and I take the metro to save time,' said Naveen Kumar, a commuter waiting outside the station. 'But to get here, I have to cross the signal with heavy lorries and buses or walk a long way to the FoB. The bus stop next to the station is lying unused. It defeats the whole point of having a metro if people cannot reach it safely,' he added.
Footpaths blocked
At Hebbagodi station, while a skywalk and underpass exist, they are located almost 500 metres away. Commuters using the footpath find their way blocked by BBMP garbage lorries, which park near the Hebbagodi metro depot to segregate waste.
'The footpath is so bad that you end up walking on the road alongside vehicles. Just when you think you have found a clear path, you see these big garbage lorries parked in front of you. I have missed trains because I couldn't get past in time. This is not something we should be dealing with after spending so much money on building a metro line,' said Anita S., a regular commuter from Hebbagodi.
Accessibility gaps
One of the most important stations on the Yellow Line, the double-elevated Jayadeva Hospital interchange, has been touted as a modern, well-planned facility. With 12 entrances spread across four zones with lifts, the station is designed to handle heavy commuter traffic and connect the Yellow and the Pink Lines.
However, reaching these entrances is not straightforward. Many access points are surrounded by broken footpaths, uneven surfaces, and chaotic traffic.
'The station itself is impressive, but it feels like the planners stopped thinking once they finished building it. You have lifts, but first you have to dodge traffic, step over potholes, and find your way around missing pavements just to get to them. It's exhausting,' said Harish Rao, a commuter.
Stations at BTM Layout, Silk Board, Bommanahalli, and Kudlu Gate present similar problems.
Urban mobility expert M.N. Srihari pointed out that such problems stem from poor inter-agency coordination. 'Metro construction cannot be seen in isolation. You need to ensure that BBMP, BMRCL, and BMTC and the traffic police work together from the design stage itself. What we are seeing now is the result of working without coordination. The metro is ready, but the supporting infrastructure is not. This is a classic case of how world-class projects lose their efficiency because of last-mile negligence. Pedestrian access should be integrated into the station design itself, not treated as an afterthought,' he said.
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