Why more techies prefer private vehicles to the KR Pura-Whitefield metro in Bengaluru

The missing link

The missing section impedes connectivity between the eastern parts of the city with prime locations and core commercial and startup hubs such as Indiranagar and MG Road, and western parts such as Mysuru Road and Kengeri.

Several residents find the frequency of feeder buses provided between Baiyappanahalli and KR Pura station erratic.

For Rajaram Bhaskaran, catching a feeder bus in the morning easily takes about 35-45 minutes.

Pravir B, a Whitefield resident and a member of Whitefield Rising, a citizens movement group, said that the metro connects most of the tech offices in the Whitefield area. But, he says, “a considerable part of the IT crowd is in Indiranagar and Koramangala, and as far as Yelahanka and southern parts of the city. They won't be availing metro services unless the missing link is fixed,” he added.

Last-mile disconnect

“The metro connects all the IT offices beautifully. However, it skips several residential areas in the eastern part of the city,” said Pravir.

For Abhishek Anand, who is happy about the metro connecting to Kadugodi (towards Whitefield), the poor last-mile feeder connectivity from stations to residential areas is a big downside.

Unless the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation runs feeder buses connecting the metro stations, the number of private vehicles, and consequent congestion, will not come down, experts say.

Sandeep Anirudhan, convenor of the Citizens’ Agenda for Bengaluru, pointed out that Chennai has electric nano buses as an excellent solution to provide the last-mile connectivity from metro stations, bus stops and railway stations to internal roads.

To add to the woes, several residents Moneycontrol spoke to say the new metro stations lack proper parking facilities, which discourages several people from travelling to the metro stations in their own vehicles.

A transport expert with the Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), who spoke on conditions of anonymity, conceded that this is a key challenge that has to be resolved.

“The metro decongests a major bottleneck between KR Pura and Mahadevpura metro stations. However, we will not see the complete realisation of ridership until the last miles are connected. Most feeder services are not commercially attractive and thus will see longer delays before they are actually implemented. Government incentives such as subsidies for such private transport services could have helped," he added.

Connecting the faraway dots

A Shankar, Head, Government and Infrastructure Solutions, India, JLL, believes that incentives such as additional Floor Space Index (FSI) under Transit-oriented development (TOD) policies will favour further development.

TOD is a planning strategy that aims to concentrate jobs, housing, and services around public transport stations. It promotes densification in the influence area by providing a higher FSI and higher population and job density as compared to the area around and beyond the influence areas.

“With additional FSI, we will see densification along the metro corridors impacting the land areas around it and boosting demand for the development and real estate. It will increase walkability and encourage more use of public transport systems,” he said.

Experts say the government has to identify pockets in Whitefield that will have the most impact on micro-markets and connect them to the infrastructure.

“For metro corridors, ridership revenue and property development revenue are two important aspects. For example, under property development, mixed land usage around metro corridors can be developed through a private-public partnership, along with multimodal integration of various transport modes,” Shankar added.

Pawan Mulukutla, Director of Integrated Transport, Electric Mobility & Hydrogen at WRI India, said improving access to public transport is always a factor of cost vs time.

“People are ready to pay and also willing to give time for the last mile if made accessible. One way to implement this is having a walking corridor of up to 700 metres for 10-15 minutes of walking. For example, in Mumbai the pedestrian corridors along the suburban railway system are a major hit,” he said.

Mulukutla added that after this, the time factor is lost, and people will move to other transport modes. “Several modes like shared autorickshaws, e-vehicle, and microbuses (15-20 seaters) are economical and time-saving,” he added.

BMLTA needs to be implemented

In the making for almost 16 years, the state government last year passed the Bangalore Metropolitan Land Transport Authority (BMLTA) Bill, which serves as a multi-modal transport body connecting all modes of public transport under one umbrella.

For example, the KR Pura metro station is currently not linked to the KR Pura railway station, a major transport hub in the city.

“Constructing about 1 km of metro costs between Rs 250-500 crore. Similarly, 1 km of skywalk costs about Rs 10 crore. We have to connect each of the public transport modes so that people can easily access them with less stress on using their own vehicles. In Indonesia, there are more than 1,700 microbuses that connect parts of the city Indonesia's Jakarta, even in narrower parts of the city,” Mulukutla added.

However, the 33-member BMLTA committee has only three experts in urban mobility, corporate governance and finance, and two representatives from academic institutions; the vast majority are bureaucrats.

Mulukutla said more transport experts and public discussions are needed to solve mobility issues in Bengaluru —- the BMLTA can be a prime mover to a better future.

"Diversifying infra planning models, and inviting prominent resident welfare associations (RWAs) to discussions to link parts of the city are the steps to rectify dented mobility. We have already passed an order that all construction should have 20 percent of parking for EV charging, and thus local municipal bodies will have to look at new solutions to solve traffic woes,” he added.