Metros have started in the state of Karnataka. After a warm greeting by users in the starting days, ridership is steadily growing in Bengaluru Metro since services resumed close to six months after they were shut owing to COVID-19 restrictions. However, the average ridership is yet to surpass the 10% of what it was pre-pandemic. It may be remembered the first metro, after services resumed, ran on September 7 on the purple line and on September 9 on the green line. Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited then restarted its trains in a phased manner, for the first time since closure in March.

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While the ridership on September 9 was 14,438, the ridership on September 30 was 48,041, which is more than thrice that of September 9. In the coming days, the metro authority expects the ridership to surpass the mark of 50,000. Incidentally, till the end of September, 48,041 is the highest ridership for the metro since the reopening of the metro post-March. 

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Reinforcing COVID-19 norms had meant that the metro trains can only run at 20% of their capacity at a time, BMRCL MD Ajay Seth had told a leading daily previously. Moreover, considering low passenger footfall, trains are currently running only between 7 am and 9 pm (as opposed to 5 am to 11 pm pre-COVID-19) with a peak hour frequency at five minutes and non-peak hour frequency at 10 minutes. In this period, there were two days (September 27 and 28) when the metro services had partially been shortened between Nagasandra and RV Road Stations from 7 am to 9 pm.