Local electric trains to ease City traffic

Local electric trains to ease City traffic
Subhash Chandra N S, Bangalore, April 22, DH News Service:

To facilitate easy movement of employees working in various industrial areas on the outskirts of Bangalore, the State Government along with South Western Railways has proposed to operate local electric trains that work on Electrical Multiple Units (EMU) on the lines of Mumbai and Chennai.

After a 28-year long delay, the State Government has now zeroed in on the existing railway network to ease the traffic on the highways. The proposed EMU trains will operate after an overhaul of the old railway lines and stations.

This is seen as a cost effective project to convert all the old narrow guage tracks. “Lakhs of people go out of the City covering a distance upto 100 kms to earn a livelihood. This movement is congesting the City traffic and the Highways during the peak hours. Local railways can bring down the pressure by transporting thousands of people at a time,” said M N Srihari, Professor, Post Graduate Studies on Highway Technologies, R V College of Engineering.

Srihari, who is also an advisor to Agenda for Bangalore Infrastructure Development (ABIDe) and to the State Government on traffic problems, says that the project might take off within a couple of months as both the State Government and South Western Railways have shown interest in this. “ It is not the circular railway proposed by the State Government. Here we are trying to utilise what is lying idle. The only expenditure is on establishing EMUs at a cost of Rs 90 lakh per kilometre,” he said. The initial project was to provide a rail link to the Bengaluru International Airport.

Srihari, who recently concluded a study on the feasibility of the project, has identified five trunk routes for the train service. On the Bangalore- Mysore route, doubling will be provided with EMU, and will be connected with stations such as Bidadi, Ramanagara and Chennapatna.

The Bangalore - Whitefield route will cover Malur and KGF, covering a distance of 80 kms, while the Bangalore- Salem line will have stations at K R Puram and cover a distance of 35 kms.

The Bangalore -Devanahalli railway line will be connected with stations such as Yelahanka and Yerthaganahalli (nearest station to the Bengaluru International Airport) and cover a distance of 50 kms. The Bangalore- Tumkur rail link will cover a distance of 70 kms with a station at Nelamangala.