BENGALURU: In a huge relief to railway passengers, a new facility to facilitate movement of trains within the Bengaluru City Railway Station has begun functioning recently. The ‘shunting neck’ that has come up on the Belli Mutt Road will improve the punctuality of trains. Thousands of passengers on board both express and mail trains entering the city daily have often been perplexed by the fact that trains reach Bengaluru as per schedule but often get held on the outskirts of the city between 5 and 30 minutes. The delay happens almost regularly for trains approaching Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna station from Cantonment station on Platforms 1 to 7.
R S Saxena, Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Railway Division, told The New Indian Express the new shunting neck on Binny Mill land commenced operations on February 8 on Mysuru Road side without much fanfare. “It is too early to give statistics on the exact impact but this new line is bound to ease the congestion at the station,” he said.
Though the facility was planned long ago, there was a delay in implementing it due to various reasons. The yard needed to be remodelled, the sanctioning of the project got delayed and shortage of funds too hampered its completion. “All these issues have been sorted out and Bengaluru Division has spent `1 crore to put in place the new shunting neck,” he said.A top railway official said 75 express trains and 50 passenger trains pass through Bengaluru railway station almost daily.
“After the cleaning is done, the trains that need to depart from Platform 1 to 7 need to be taken to their platforms through the shunting line (Train Marshalling Line) present in the route towards the Cantonment Railway station only. Since this line crisscrosses the existing tracks, all incoming trains need to be held up enroute. Hence, the delay in arrival of trains to the station is inevitable,” he said. Trains that depart from Platforms 8 to 10 have a shunting facility towards the Yeswantpur railway station, he said. “Hence, these trains are not affected that much.”