Centre’s nod awaited for railway plan

Centre’s nod awaited for railway plan
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: The state’s proposal to use existing railway lines to link the city with the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) is still very much on paper. On Wednesday, Akhil Agrawal, divisional railway manager, South Western Railway (SWR), told TOI the entire plan was still in proposal stage.
He said the Railways had to take approval from the headquarters and then, the central government, before the plan could be taken forward. The state infrastructure development department (IDD) had made a proposal to link the Bangalore City and Cantonment stations to BIA by operating four (two each, up and down) shuttle services. The proposal was made after the ambitious High Speed Rail Link (HSRL) to the airport was stalled.
Under the SWR proposal, there will be two routes — via Yeshwantpur and Channasandra — that will converge at Yelahanka and then proceed to Devanahalli. “We may set up a station off the trumpet interchange near BIA, if land is granted,’’ Agarwal said.
The DRM clarified that the permission for operating the shuttle services had not yet been received.