In a great move, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has decided to permit pregnant women to use separate entry and exit gates at all its Metro stations. Isn’t it a great step? Yes, it is! The new move follows a series of requests from such women, expressing concerns of choosing the regular entry and exit gates at busy stations.
The BMRCL maintains there is nothing unsafe about the regular gates. In this new move, the pregnant ladies will still have to swipe their cards or drop the tokens at the automatic fare collection (AFC) gates but will be permitted to enter and exit through the service gates that are there in all stations.
According to metro sources, a large number of women, particularly from Rajajinagar, and those using the Trinity station reached out to BMRCL raising concern over using the AFC gates.
“Women were concerned that these gates — which open when you swipe the Metro card or drop the token and close after the passenger crosses over — would shut abruptly and hit them,” a source added while few others claimed some ladies were upset that the detectors used to inspect the passengers could harm their babies.
It should be noted that ‘Namma Metro’ uses only metal detectors to check passengers which are equipped with sensors. The officials gave a strong statement saying that there is nothing to worry about since there is no x-ray.
“There were several requests from women. There is no problem with the detectors, and that has been explained. Also, the AFC gates don’t close until a person completely passes through them. Therefore, there’s no concern even there. But since there were requests, we considered letting them use the other gates on humanitarian grounds,” BMRCL spokesperson BLY Chavan said.
On how many total requests they received, Chavan told: “I don’t have the exact numbers, but there were a few. We know that at Trinity station alone, more than 15 pregnant women use the service gates regularly.”
(With inputs from TNN)
