BENGALURU : Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of South Western Railway's (SWR) Bengaluru division, RS Saxena, has proposed the construction of rail overbridges to the Karnataka Government. These bridges have been proposed on the Baiyappanahalli to Hosur railway section, on a cost-sharing basis. The estimated cost of eliminating 15 manned level crossings comes to Rs 402.51 crore in total, with a proposed sharing of Rs 147.39 crore by railways and Rs 255.12 crore by state.
The letter addressed by DRM to Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) commissioner on August 14 this year, refers to the sanction of doubling on Baiyappanahalli-Hosur railway line in this year's budget. DULT forwarded the letter to the Infrastructure Development Department. It states :"These manned level crossing gates get closed for a considerable period of time during operation of trains, leading to congestion of road traffic and inconvenience, harassment to road users.
It is proposed to construct ROBs over all of them since after doubling and electrification, the frequency of trains will increase substantially since suburban services would commence. It is suggested that consent may be given for construction of ROBs on a cost-sharing basis."
Of these 15 gates, sanction for two is already in place for construction of rail overbridges. Giving updates on the progress of the same, Saxena told City Express, "We wanted to finish the construction of ROBs on Hosur section quickly. The government responded asking for details of the number of manned level crossings, ROBs and approximate estimate for Bengaluru urban, Bengaluru rural and BBMP limits. We are working on the estimate and will submit it in a day or two."
Talking about the benefits of this proposal, transport experts say that once the level crossings are eliminated, there will be no more traffic jams for cars, buses and other road users, who currently spend a lot of time waiting for the gates to open.
Transport Expert from Praja RAAG, Sanjeev Dyamannavar said, "This proposal for replacing level crossings with ROBs on this specific section is a good initiative by the DRM and will be helpful to road commuters. Since doubling is already in progress on this line, they will have to get rid of manned level crossings soon. Including the rest of the railway crossings in Bengaluru is a good development as well."