About a year after the entire Phase I of Namma Metro was inaugurated, the Majestic metro station, which eased the travel of lakhs of commuters by connecting the North-South and East-West lines of the metro, has earned another distinction – but a dubious one.
Though the Namma Metro stations may be a picture in contrast with other mass transport stations as far as cleanliness is concerned, littering and spitting are offences reported even within the metro stations, which is why the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) has levied penalties amounting to lakhs.
In the financial year 2017-18, the BMRCL collected ₹2.5 lakh in fines from erring passengers. Stations where most of these offences were reported are Majestic and Yeshwantpur, with the penalties levied in Majestic station alone coming up to ₹1 lakh.
“Both Majestic and Yeshwantpur stations are connected to the railway stations. Many who have completed long journeys end up using the washrooms, which could be a reason,” a senior BMRCL official said.
The Majestic station is the busiest in terms of the number of passengers who use it as an interchange – to change from the Purple Line to the Green Line and vice versa, while the terminal stations of the North-South and East-West routes see the maximum loading, the official added.
Officials said the metro rail corporation levies fines ranging from ₹50 to ₹100. “There have been cases where we have even fined ₹250 in serious cases, such as spitting on the wall. The station controller uses his or her discretion to fix a penalty amount,” the official said.
In cases where the person who has committed the offence is not in a position to pay, s/he is made to clean up the mess, officials added. Close to four lakh passengers use the Namma Metro every day on an average.
“Though people have been fined before, enforcement was made more stringent last year. We got a lot more people working at the stations. Earlier, it was not done so systematically and on such a scale,” said BMRCL officials, adding that implementation will only get more strict in the coming days.