Intra-City electric trains soon

Map courtesy of Deccan Herald

Intra-City electric trains soon

While the metro rail will cater to the central parts, the proposed electric train service will connect densely-populated and congested residential areas.

Deccan Herald

Citizens in the highly-congested western and eastern parts of Bangalore need not be disgruntled over the fact that the proposed metro rail project will not pass through most of their localities. For, an almost similar electric train service will be in place -- if all goes well -- much before the proposed metro rail chugs off.

The South Western Railways is planning to take up electrification of the tracks on all stations located in the western and eastern parts of the city connecting Malleshwaram with Byappanahalli off Old Madras Road. The project, which has already got the green signal from the Central Railway Board, is designed to cover all 11 existing railway stations here along two separate routes -- the inner and the outer chords.

Besides, stations will be upgraded with better amenities so that they can cater to the increasing passenger rush.

The total cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 24 crore.

Areas covered

While trains in the inner chord will cover Malleshwaram, Yeshwanthpur, Hebbal and Banaswadi (spanning 14 km), the outer chord will touch a larger ring of stations like Malleshwaram, Yeshwanthpur, Lottegollahalli, Kodigehalli, Yelahanka, Tanisandra, Chennasandra and Byappanahalli (total 31 km).

Trains on both routes will commence from the Bangalore City station in Majestic area, sources in the South Western Railway told Deccan Herald.

The proposed metro rail, which will be implemented by Bangalore Mass Rapid Transit Limited (BMRTL), will pass through only Yeshwanthpur and Byappanahalli in Bangalore eastern and western parts. In fact, while the Bangalore metro rail is designed to cater to central parts of the City, the electric train service will supplement easy travel by covering far-flung areas.

The electric trains will cater to newly-developed densely-populated residential areas along the outer ring road. There will be no changes in rate of fare in the service.

In fact, many people, especially labourers, are already making use of existing train services to travel between these stations. The reason is that trains are more convenient and economical compared to the city bus service. For instance, one has to change two buses to reach Yeshwanthpur from Banaswadi, and it requires over one hour to reach the destination through traffic jams in the heart of the city.

However, trains will not be operated exclusively on these routes. Instead, passengers would have to use all trains presently running on these routes.

“We have plans to increase the number of trips, both up and down everyday on both routes, if there is more demand from the passengers,” Divisional Electrical Engineer (Traction) South Western Railways, Praveen Poddar said.

Electrification work will be taken up at the end of this year. “It requires 10 months to complete the work. Tentatively, the electric train service will commence in two years’ time,” Mr Poddar added.