Termination of trains at Cant station likely

Termination of trains at Cant station likely
By S Lalitha, DH News Service, Bangalore:
The termination and commencement of trains from the Cantonment Railway station is all set to become a reality, thanks to the sanction accorded by the Railways to put in place the infrastructure needed there.



Two things are absolutely vital at a junction for a train to halt at a station–water hydrants to enable the cleaning of coaches, toilets and tracks, and the presence of cement cover aprons on the railway track which would facilitate the cleaning of night soil and other garbage dumped easily. While Yeshwantpur and City stations, where termination of trains take place presently, are equipped with water hydrants, Cantonment station lacked them. Moreover, the spaces between the sleepers on the tracks here are filled up with with ballast (blue jelly stones).

Permission granted

The Bangalore division has now been given permission to lay cement concrete along one track, said Divisional Railway Manager, Alok Agrawal. Along with it, water hydrants would also be installed. Hence, the platform adjacent to it, Number 1A, can have the termination of trains.

Revised design

“The Research, Development and Standard Organisation of Railways, based in Lucknow has sent us a revised design for laying of the aprons. It would be studied and then tenders called for it,” Agrawal said. Work will begin between three and four months here, he added. “We have not yet decided on the specific trains that would terminate here,” Agrawal said. Sources at Cantonment station had long been complaining that despite much cleaning done here on a regular basis, the station looks unclean due to white patches all along the tracks. This is due to a chemical mixed with lime and sprinkled all along the tracks to cover up the night soil.

“This is being done to avoid infection as well as to control foul stench,” informed a railway source. The objective is achieved to some extent but the white patches throughout the track present a disgusting sight, he added. However, there is no other option as the carrying of night soil by humans, the method by which railway tracks were cleaned in most stations in the past, has been banned, he added.