Soon, Bengaluru Metro To Let In Only Women From First Two Doors

Women commuting by the metro rail in Bengaluru can breathe easy. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) Managing Director Mahendra Jain has announced that it will only allow women passengers to enter and exit from the first two doors behind the loco-pilot’s cabin in some trains. The move will come into effect from March 1.

“Two out of the four doors in the first coach in a few trains in both the Green Line and Purple Line will permit only women to use them. Depending on the response, we will extend it to all the trains on our network,” said Jain. He also said that this feature would become a norm once the six-coach metro trains are active.

Jain was talking at an event that marked the official handover of the first three intermediate cars that would create the first six-car Metro train in Bengaluru. He added that once the six-coach metros are in place, then the BMRCL will reserve the entire first coach for women.

From June to August, we hope to get 6 coaches a month which would increase to 9 a month in September and would go up to 12 coaches a month after that

On the time the corporation will take to start the metros, he said, “The integration and testing for the coaches would go on for two months. Once it is certified, full-fledged production would start. From June to August, we hope to get 6 coaches a month, which would increase to 9 a month in September and would go up to 12 coaches a month after that. By June 2019, we will receive all the 150 coaches.”

Union Parliamentary Affairs and Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananthkumar also spoke about reserving the first two doors in the metro for women.

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Metro makes it safer for women to travel and reserving coaches, which has always proved controversial in the gender equality narrative, isn’t actually so difficult to understand. If women had felt safer in a gender equal public space, then there wouldn’t be a need to have reservations of seats and coaches in trains. Frequent criminal activities make women feel unsafe and hence arises the need for women’s coaches.

Picture credit- Railnews

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