A ride through Metro

BANGALORE:  To give commuters a feel of what to expect in the coming days, Express presents a curtain raiser to the Metro project.What to expectCommuters can take the first train at 6 am once the counters open at 5.45 am. The last train to Byappanahalli from M G Road will be at 10 pm. There are facilities to guide the physically-challenged and elevator facilities to take them from the entry gate to the platform. ATM facilities and smart card recharge counters are also available at every station. While there are no toilets within the  station, there are pay and use toilets right outside the station premises.The man behind the design of the entire project chief engineer (designs and underground) N P Sharma said that the station design helps in a quick evacuation of the people from the platform to outside the station in case of an emergency. “The station design is such that it will take about 4 minutes for people to move from the platform to a safe place and about 6 and a half minutes to leave the station,” he said.  He added that BMRCL expects a surge in the number of commuters in the first fifteen days after the inauguration. “Curiosity will attract people to the Metro initially. But after about fifteen days, we expect the number of commuters to drop and stabilise,” he added.