BANGALORE, INDIA (Metro Rail News): Namma Metro or Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) commuters want to do needful with alternate seating arrangements on trains. The ridership in the Metro is over two lakhs every day on both lines; commuters argue that it is fruitless to insist that some seats be kept vacant, especially during peak commuting hours. Moreover, they want to remove “do not sit” stickers from Metro because they face many problems while travelling.
Regular commuters said that “While travelling in the Metro, often a recorded announcement gets played informing commuters that they can sit on all the seats. But some commuters do not allow others to sit next to them because of the stickers; they show those stickers. Moreover, many commuters keep their bag on those seats so nobody can sit on that seat. So, BMRCL does needful in this regard,” said a regular metro commuter.
On 21st June 2021, after the second pandemic wave, BMRCL resumed metro services fastly and increased the frequency of trains over time. Initially, to maintain social distancing, commuters were instructed to leave every alternate seat empty. At the time, people were not allowed to stand either.
However, after one month, when cases continued to decline, social distancing norms were relaxed, and commuters were allowed to sit on all the seats and stand if there was no seating space. But not all commuters are aware of this and create troubles for other commuters.
According to the BMRCL officials’ statement, “Passenger complaints on non-removal of stickers will be passed to the higher authority, and necessary action will be taken soon”.
