My trip to India has been very enjoyable and the same time quite hectic too. Meeting friends, relatives after two years plus also attended a marriage of my cousin - which was the first Indian marriage my little Pranutha attended.
I also had an opportunity to take a ride in the newly started local train in Bangalore called Namma Metro. It was a to/fro ride from Byappannahalli to the famous M.G Road in Bangalore - a stretch of 6.7 km. We took the train in the rush hour at 7:00pm and a car drive in that time would have easily taken 1 hour where as the train took us to MG Road in sharp 12 minutes. Most of the crowd in the train were visitors like us and a Rs 15/- train ride was worth every penny. Its in par with any of the world's metro trains with all modern amenities.
Per Wikipedia, the Phase I of Namma Metro, consists of two corridors that will cover a total of 42.30 km. Currently only a 6.7 km stretch between Baiyyappanahalli and M. G. Road on the East-West corridor is operationalThe next stretch to open will be 9.9km long Reach 3 and Reach 3A. The stretch connects Swastik to Peenya Industrial Area. I just wish that the all the four phases of this Metro gets completed asap and the exponential growing traffic of Bengaluru gets a break.
Being in India's IT capital, Namma Metro has made good use of all the latest technologies like
* Wi-fi enabled coaches, internet access
* Voice communication/speaker system between passengers, driver and control centre
* CCTVs inside stations and trains
* Automatic train supervision, safety and protection that will sense another train on the same track and come to a halt
* Automatic ticketing
* Recharge of metro cards through mobiles and SMS, a first in the world
