Train to BIA: Last link missing

Train to BIA: Last link missing

Airport is at least 6 km away, no one knows how to traverse this distance

Rohith BR. Bangalore

The South-Western Railway (SWR) has joined the bandwagon to provide a link to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA).
For a mere Rs8, it plans to run two schedules daily from the city railway station to Devanahalli. The fare is far cheaper than any other mode of transport to reach BIA. But the question is how does one get to BIA from Devanahalli; the two are 10 km apart.
DNA visited the Devanahalli station on Tuesday for a reality check. There are no convenient means of transport from this station to the airport now. Most of the train passengers are residents of Devanahalli and they prefer to walk a kilometre or more to reach their homes in the town.
Those who want to reach the airport from the station have to walk at least a kilometre to the bus stand on NH 7. But here too, very few buses ferry you till the airport terminal.
The other option is to take an auto as no taxi service is available here. And one will have to shell out Rs100 to Rs150 to get to the airport.
"I live in a village near Yelahanka and prefer to take the train to reach BIA everyday, where I work as a cabin cleaner," said Varadaraju S. He said many a time he has had altercations with auto drivers for charging hefty fares.
Autorickshaw drivers too have their woes to tell. "Devanahalli is not like Bangalore city where autos get passengers round the clock. With fuel prices rising, we have to charge more if we have to earn a living," said Dinakar Babu, an auto driver.
His fellow drivers say that sometimes they do not even get five passengers a day. When questioned about whether they were ready to ferry people once the train service to Devanahalli from the city begins, they nodded happily. "But we are not ready to decrease the fares," they added.
Besides, autorickshaws are allowed only till the trumpet intersection, from where the airport is another 2 km away. And no one has an idea on how to traverse this distance.