BENGALURU: To make good for the delay in introduction of a suburban rail service, the Bangalore Railway Division recently announced a list of trains to partially cover a segment of the proposed suburban route. In this connection, two Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) services to Whitefield will be run at timings convenient to IT professionals from January 17.
According to railway sources, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu will be coming to the city to flag off these services along with three services from here to Ramanagara on January 16. “The trains will be flagged off on January 16 evening and will run a short trip. The actual commercial run will begin the next morning (January 17),” they said.
One of the services will run exclusively to Whitefield while the second service will stop at Whitefield enroute Kuppam. Three pairs of trains to Ramanagara, two of them evening trains, will also be launched on that day.
The MEMU to Whitefield will leave Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna railway station at 8.45 am and reach Whitefield at 9.40 am. In the return direction, it will leave Whitefield at 10.30 am and reach KSR at 11.10 am. The second train will leave KSR at 11.20 am and reach Kuppam at 1.45 pm. It will leave Kuppam at 2.45 pm and return to KSR at 5.20 pm. The trains will stop at Cantonment, Bengaluru East, Baiyappanahalli, KR Puram and Hoodi stations in both directions.
“With the Suburban Draft Policy making the state government solely responsible for putting in place a suburban network and calling for new infrastructure solely for suburban trains, Railways is now relived of playing the key role in putting in place the suburban service,” added a railway official.
The services between KSR and Ramanagara will have stops at Nayandahalli, Kengeri, Hejjala and Bidadi.
The timings of the proposed morning service is as follows: leave KSR at 5.20 am and reach Ramanagara at 6.15 am; In the return direction, leave Ramanagaram at 7 am and KSR at 8.40 am.
The two evening trains will run as per the following timings: Begins at KSR at 5.25 pm and reaches Ramanagara at 6.30 pm; from Ramanagara at 6.35 pm and reach KSR at 7.50 pm.
The final train will leave KSR at 7.55 pm to reach Ramanagara at 9.10. In the return route, it will leave Ramanagaram at 9.35 pm to reach KSR at 11.10 pm.
When compared to the regular coaches run by the Railways, MEMUs can accommodate more passengers. “They have a greater holding capacity and the eight coaches can carry up to 1,600 passengers,” said an official.
“They cause less pollution to the environment since they run on electricity and have a greater pick-up speed compared to regular trains,” he added.