Railways asks RITES to re-examine its Report on Bangalore Suburban Service

Railways asks RITES to re-examine its Report on Bangalore Suburban Service

Bangalore: The project report presented by the public sector engineering consultancy Rail Indian Technical and Economic Service (RITES) on suburban rail service in Bengaluru needs to be re-examined due to some “fundamental defects”, feels the Railways.

A high-level meet to discuss the report was held on Friday evening between the Commissioner of Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) V Manjula and Divisional Railway Manager (DRM), Bengaluru Division, Sanjiv Agarwal, along with top officials of Railways and the State government.

DULT Railway MeetThe entire suburban rail project aims at running train services from Bengaluru along the five directions of Hosur, Hindupur, Tumakuru, Mysuru and Bangarpet. Elaborating upon the proposal for Yeshwantpur station, he said the report’s idea to create a new platform to run the train from here by converting the existing Platform One (on the congested Market side) into an island platform was not grounded in reality “It is just not technically feasible. It is a steep gradient on this side and a railway line cannot be laid here at all.” Creation of a platform involves having an approach road and buildings, aspects which has not been considered at all.

The proposal to create new platforms for suburban trains at the City station will involve shifting of maintenance areas. “If the shifting has to be done, the feasibility of it has to be studied and the land required needs to be assessed.”

The report does not clearly specify the exact number of trains presently being run by the City and YPR stations, the DRM told DULT. “The stations are saturated at present with 120 passenger trains and 238 Express trains already run along the suburban routes,” he informed.

This report needs to be re-examined by RITES, he said.

Bengaluru Railway Station to be named as Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna Railway Station

Bengaluru railway station will soon be named after Karnataka’s prominent 19th century freedom fighter and warrior Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna, an official said on Thursday. “On the state government’s recommendation, the Indian Railways and the union home ministry has approved naming the city’s main railway station after Sangolli Rayanna,” South Western Railway (SWR) General Manager P.K. Saxena said.