Bhopal Metro Rolls Out: People enjoy first ride, this is how they expressed their joy & excitement (see pics)
Sunday marked the first day of commercial operations for the Bhopal Metro. The metro service began at 9 AM from AIIMS station. A total of 17 trips were made throughout the day, including 9 trips between AIIMS and Subhash Nagar and 8 trips between Subhash Nagar and AIIMS.
People showed great interest in riding the metro on Sunday. More than 6,000 people had traveled by the last trip. This included elderly people as old as 75 years and children as young as 10 years old.
A couple riding the Bhopal Metro said, "We have come from Bairagarh. This is a very happy moment for Bhopal. Traveling on the metro is an unforgettable experience for us."
Children riding the metro said, "We study at Kendriya Vidyalaya. We could see our school from the metro. It feels great to ride the metro for the first time."
Children were also among the passengers. A young boy said, "I boarded the metro with my parents and brother from AIIMS station. Now we are going back to AIIMS from Subhash Nagar station. It feels very good to ride the metro for the first time."
A young man riding the metro in Bhopal was seen on a video call. He was showing his family the metro and the sights of Bhopal. The joy of riding the metro for the first time was clearly visible on the youth's face.
Many youngsters were seen taking selfies in the train and at the stations. Some of them even danced and sang to express their joy.
A doctor from AIIMS hospital said, "We are from Delhi, so we have traveled on the metro many times there. But this is the first time the metro has started in Bhopal, so we wanted to see what is different about the metro here compared to Delhi. And it feels great to ride the metro. This is a great achievement for Bhopal."
On the first day, a controversy also arose regarding children's tickets.
At the Subhash Nagar metro station, some people objected to charging fares for children. Videos of this incident also surfaced. They argued that even the railways don't have a rule for charging tickets for young children, yet the metro was charging fares.
The metro is being operated by two pilots. Janhvi Goswami from Sagar is also among them. She is the first female train operator of the Bhopal Metro. She was the one who drove the metro train on Saturday, which also carried Chief Minister Dr. Mohan Yadav and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.