Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans outside the closed metro station near the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
| Photo Credit: K. MURALI KUMAR

More than two lakh people arriving on the streets of the central business district (CBD) to celebrate the victory of Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) threw traffic and public transport out of gear, causing much inconvenience even to those who were not partking in the celebrations on Wednesday. 

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Officials said that 8.7 lakh people boarded metro until 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

Choking CBD area

While the Bengaluru traffic police (BTP) had imposed traffic restrictions and advised commuters to avoid the CBD areas, the major roads around the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium and Vidhana Soudha were choked. Residency Road, Richmond Road, Nrupatunga Road, Ulsoor Road after Trinity Circle and Raj Bhavan Road were chock-a-block during the evening peak hours.

Meanwhile, from the afternoon, those commuting by metro, especially on the Purple Line, struggled as the trains were overcrowded.

“I left Kengeri station at about 3.15 p.m., and the crowd was already huge. Then, by the time the train reached Vijayanagar, scores of people dressed in RCB jerseys boarded the train. They began chanting ‘RCB’ and ‘Ee sala cup namdu’, and by the time the train entered Majestic, there were more people than the train could contain, and the chanting got even louder. Exiting at the Cubbon Park station, near which my workplace is located, was a task. One elevator had even stopped working,” said Ramesh Kumar, a metro commuter.

As chaos continued to unfold near the stadium and Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRCL) announced that the trains would not stop at B.R. Ambedkar Vidhana Soudha and Cubbon Park stations.

“Due to the extremely high footfall for the RCB team felicitation function at Vidhana Soudha and Chinnaswamy cricket stadium, from 4.30 p.m., metro trains will not stop at Cubbon Park and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Vidhana Soudha stations until further notice. Accordingly, token and QR ticket vending services at these stations have been temporarily suspended,” the BMRCL said in a press statement.

This resulted in huge crowds gathering at the nearby stations, including Sir M. Visvesvaraya Central College, M.G. Road, and Trinity, and the ripple effect stretched till Swami Vivekananda Road station. Many people were also seen walking from near the stadium for kilometres to reach other metro station.

To cope with the surge, metro commuters were allowed to pass without scanning QR code tickets, cards, or tokens, leading to congestion near barricades. Some commuters described being trapped in metro trains that did not stop at stations, with shutters down, creating a frightening experience.

Even then, until almost 8 p.m., there were huge queues outside the metro stations. “I boarded the train at M. G. Road, and they were letting people in batches of 50. I could see that there were men even inside the compartment reserved for women. It took me over 1.5 hours to reach the Baiyyappanahalli metro station after I reached M.G. Road station,” said Pratap Reddy, a regular commuter of metro who was going home after work.

Surge pricing

The extensive demand for transport also led to surge pricing on most ride-hailing apps, leaving commuters with no choice but to pay double the usual. “I work on Residency Road and had to reach Peenya during the peak hour of the evening. I found out that the metro was overcrowded and booked a cab, ended up paying ₹600 for a ride which should not have cost more than ₹300,” said Manasa S., a private complany employee.

(With inputs from Sagnik Maitra and Eman Syed)