"Huge Boon": Kiran Mazumdar Shaw To NDTV On Bengaluru Metro's Yellow Line Launch

Bengaluru Namma Metro's Yellow Line is a “boon” to the city's tech corridor commute, entrepreneur Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has said. The line was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday.

The Biocon founder described the Yellow Line as a "welcome development" that the city has "been waiting for a long, long time." 

"We have been waiting for the Yellow Line to start functioning for more than a year. We are so delighted that the day has finally arrived, and the fact that the Prime Minister is inaugurating it is a big moment for us," Ms Mazumdar-Shaw told NDTV.

The new 19.15-km metro corridor, connecting RV Road in South Bengaluru to Bommasandra in the east, was built at a cost of Rs 7,160 crore and features 16 elevated stations. It is expected to serve up to eight lakh commuters daily and significantly ease traffic congestion in key areas.

Addressing daily traffic, Ms Mazumdar-Shaw said, "The traffic congestion that we are seeing every day on this tech corridor will ease. It will become a huge convenience for commuters in the tech corridor."

"Every employee will find this convenient and a huge boon because if you cut down travel time so significantly," she added. "I think today, a lot of employees who work in this tech corridor are spending and wasting huge amounts of productive time just travelling to and so."

Asked if she has received complaints from her employees about traffic, she said, "Of course, because every day there are huge traffic jams."

"I think traffic congestion has become a real bane of this city and for many, many reasons apart from the fact that the most important factor that can ease traffic congestion is Metro lines. I think we need to complete the Metro network very, very rapidly. And the yellow line certainly should have been done years ago, but you know, as they say, better late than never," she added.

The Yellow Line directly connects major hubs such as Silk Board Junction, BTM Layout, Electronic City, and Bommasandra Industrial Area. It aims to reduce notorious traffic choke points and save commuters significant travel time.

PM Modi rode the metro from RV Road to Electronic City during the inauguration, interacting with students along the way.

With the Yellow Line now operational, Bengaluru's metro network extends to over 96 km, expected to relieve congestion along Hosur Road, Silk Board Junction, and Electronics City Junction. Officials confirmed three train sets are already in service for the line, with a fourth arriving soon.