7 cases of sevice disruption in 9 months at Bengaluru metro stations

BENGALURU: Bengaluru’s metro has witnessed seven incidents of service disruption, including attempted suicide or suicide, in the last nine months, sounding an alarm among BMRCL officials and the police. The frequent disruptions in service due to these incidents are also affecting metro commuters.

The Metro authorities are concerned over the repeated suicide cases as metro stations are turning into suicide points. The city’s metro network, which began operations thirteen years ago, still lacks proper safety measures. Other metro cities like Delhi and Chennai have implemented Platform Screen Doors (PSD) for safety, but Bengaluru metro has not.

Seven incidents in nine months:

1. January 1, 2024: A woman stepped on to the track to retrieve her mobile phone, but was rescued by staff at Indiranagar metro station.

2. January 5, 2024: A youth attempted suicide by jumping on to the track at Jalahalli metro station, but was rescued and hospitalised.

3. January 6, 2024: A cat appeared on the track, at  JP Nagar metro station and passengers panicked.

4. March 12, 2024: An unidentified person was spotted on the track between Jnana Bharathi and Pattanagere metro stations.

5. March 21, 2024:  20-year-old youth, Dhruv committed suicide by jumping on to the track at Attiguppe metro station.

6. June 10, 2024:  A youth jumped on to the track, but was rescued by staff at Hosakerehalli metro station.

7. September 17, 2024: A 30-year-old man, Siddharth Jain, attempted suicide but was saved by a woman security guard, Rashmi, who quickly switched off the power at Jnana Bharathi metro station.

Despite officials and security personnel being alert, such incidents have been recurring. It remains to be seen how officials will prevent such incidents in the future.

BMRCL Managing Director Maheshwar Rao has issued guidelines to metro train operators to prevent suicide attempts at metro stations. This comes after a series of incidents where individuals attempted to take their own lives.

The guidelines include reducing speed limits to 10-20 kmph before entering a station, ensuring trains stop with the rear end, not the front, to prevent passengers from rushing towards the tracks, increased vigilance during peak hours when stations are crowded, reducing speed if a person is spotted on the tracks ahead, improving coordination between metro operation control and train operators, operators are instructed to use double-care pull measures instead of the existing care-pull system.

These measures are aimed at reducing suicide attempts, preventing disruption and ensuring passenger safety.