CEOs, Political Leaders Stake To Use Public Transport Twice A Week

The Purple Line of Bangalore’s metro system has officially launched full-scale operations, marking a significant step forward in the city’s efforts to address traffic congestion. On this auspicious occasion, Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, former MP Rajeev Gowda, BMTC MD Satyavathy, and CEOs of major tech companies led the way by taking a feeder bus service from the KR Puram Metro Station to Intel’s Ecospace office on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) on Wednesday. Prominent figures such as Manas Das from Intel, who also serves as the Chairman of the Association of Outer Ring Road Companies, Ramkumar Narayanan, Managing Director of VMWare, Jayan Desai, founder of Sustainable Ecosystem Collaborative, Muthu Ranganathan from Oracle, as well as tech professionals and civic groups, joined the initiative to utilize public transport and raise awareness. Both the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) and the World Resource Institute (WRI) India committed to using public transport as part of their ‘Personal2Public’ initiative. Their pledge encourages the use of metro trains, buses, and commuter trains at least twice a week, aiming to inspire others to follow suit. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, addressing the media, outlined the state government’s plans to gradually introduce an additional 2,000 buses to augment the existing BMTC bus service, ultimately enhancing last-mile connectivity. He also expressed that significant changes are anticipated in the bus corporation over the next six months. Feeder buses will operate at a frequency of every five minutes from the KR Puram metro station, making public transport a more convenient and stress-free option for professionals. Rajeev Gowda, the Vice-President of the State Institute for the Transformation of Karnataka and former MP, encouraged commuters to embrace the benefits of public transport. Urban expert and Yulu co-founder, RK Mishra, disclosed ongoing considerations for providing free passes to further promote the use of public transport, ensuring a greener, more efficient, and less congested Bangalore.