Bangalore:
Starting 3 pm today, Bangalore will get to ride its "Namma Metro."
The first stretch - seven kilometres - of the IT city's Metro project was inaugurated this morning. It took a little over four years and 1540 crores to link Mahatma Gandhi Road and Byapanahalli.
Still to come for the city notorious for its traffic jams: Another 35 kilometres of Metro connectivity, with nine kilometres running underground. The entire project is budgeted at 11,600 crores, and is expected to be ready by the end of 2013.
For now, the elevated trains that link the city centre to eastern suburbs will run from 6 am to 11 pm. Trains are scheduled every ten minutes in peak hours. The cost for a one-way ticket is Rs 15.
At least 20,000 people are expected to use this first stretch of the Metro everyday.
The inauguration today had serious competition from another high-profile debut - J Jayalalithaa's first court appearance in Bangalore in connection with a corruption case. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister will spend the day at a special court in the Central Prison denying that she misused an earlier term in power to collect assets that cannot be accounted for. Unprecedented security arrangements have been made for her visit - she arrived at court in a 20-car envy, and is escorted by National Security Guard commandos.