India’s IT city Bangalore gets its first Metro

India’s southern IT city of Bangalore (Bengaluru) got its first metro rail network today. The first stretch of seven kilometres of the metro project took a little over four years to link Mahatma Gandhi Rd and Byapanahalli.

Still to come for the city notorious for its traffic jams: another 35 kilometres of metro connectivity, with nine kilometres running underground. The entire project is budgeted at Rs.11,600 crores, and is expected to be ready by the end of 2013.

Update on Oct 24, 2011: Witnessing an overwhelming response yesterday, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has decided to run trains till 11.30 pm.

For now, the elevated trains that link the city centre to eastern suburbs will run from 6am to 11pm. Trains are scheduled every ten minutes in peak hours.

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) are also jointly introducing common day passes that can be used both in metro and BMTC buses.

According to a BMTC release, the Metro Bus Transit Day Pass for commuting in the metro and BMTC non-air-conditioned buses is priced at Rs.70. The Metro Bus Transit Day Pass for using the metro and all BMTC services except Vayu Vajra costs Rs.110.