BENGALURU: If this group of at least 2,000 techies get it right, there might soon be a train picking up professionals from Mysuru and dropping them to their workplace in Bengaluru. The group of IT professionals, who are regular commuters from Mysuru to Bengaluru, are banding together in cyberspace to get ministers and MPs to make travelling easier for them.
A WhatsApp group has been created and a survey is being conducted to find out how many software professionals travel from Mysuru to Bengaluru on a regular basis. The survey will help come up with possible changes to be made in train timings as well as stops.
Varun Pawar, a techie with a software company and convener of the survey, said, “We have found that in a year, at least 15,000 techies travel by train and almost the same number commute by buses and cars between Mysuru and Bengaluru. If you consider travellers from Mandya, Maddur, Channapatna and Ramanagara, the percentage is high. Almost all of them use their own transport and spend a lot on travel.”
According to the survey, each person spends about Rs 500 one way.
“Most of us have to travel back to Mysuru as our families are there. Some travel twice or thrice a week and others over weekends. There are around 30 trains between Mysuru and Bengaluru every day. They are all intercity or interstate trains,” Sunil Kumar, another techie, said.
This group will soon prepare a project plan which will be sent to Union Minister of State Suresh Angadi and Mysuru MP Pratap Simha.
“A request will be made for new stops at some stations in Bengaluru and also to align the departure time with office hours,” said Vivek PP, a member of the WhatsApp group.
Among their demands is the request for a stop at Heelalige village, which is 7km from Electronics City, and the nerve centre of IT offices.
According to Sunil P, a techie, as of now the train from Mysuru drops passengers to Nayandahalli from where they take the Metro to Byappanahalli. This takes at least one hour. From Byappanahalli, techies travel another one hour to reach Eco Space. It means a minimum of five to six hours of travelling and a cost of at least Rs 400.