BENGALURU: Over the past nine months, Bengaluru’s metro has experienced seven service disruptions linked to attempted suicides, raising concerns among BMRCL officials and law enforcement. These incidents are disrupting service and impacting commuters negatively. Authorities are particularly worried as metro stations are increasingly becoming sites for suicide attempts, and the metro system, which has been operational for thirteen years, still lacks essential safety measures. In contrast, other metro systems like those in Delhi and Chennai have installed Platform Screen Doors (PSD) for enhanced safety, which Bengaluru has yet to adopt.
Here is a summary of the seven incidents recorded in nine months:
- January 1, 2024: A woman was rescued by staff after she stepped onto the tracks at Indiranagar metro station to retrieve her mobile phone.
- January 5, 2024: A young man attempted suicide by jumping onto the tracks at Jalahalli metro station but was saved and later hospitalized.
- January 6, 2024: Passengers panicked when a cat appeared on the tracks at JP Nagar metro station.
- March 12, 2024: An unidentified individual was seen on the tracks between Jnana Bharathi and Pattanagere metro stations.
- March 21, 2024: A 20-year-old named Dhruv committed sui*cide by jumping onto the tracks at Attiguppe metro station.
- June 10, 2024: A young man jumped onto the tracks but was rescued by staff at Hosakerehalli metro station.
- September 17, 2024: Siddharth Jain, a 30-year-old man, attempted suicide at Jnana Bharathi metro station but was saved by a security guard, Rashmi, who quickly cut the power.
Despite the alerts from officials and security personnel, these incidents continue to occur. It remains to be seen what measures will be taken to prevent future occurrences. In response, BMRCL Managing Director Maheshwar Rao has established new guidelines for metro train operators to prevent suicide attempts, following a spate of similar incidents.
These guidelines involve lowering speed limits to 10-20 km/h before reaching stations, ensuring trains halt with the back end facing the platform to deter passengers from rushing towards the tracks, increasing alertness during busy hours, slowing trains if a person is seen on the tracks, enhancing communication between operations control and train operators, and transitioning to a more cautious double-care pull system over the existing one.
