BENGALURU: Thousands of IT professionals can look forward to a better commute to work as the first step towards their long-pending demand for a halt station at Hoodi was taken on Saturday with Bangalore Central MP P C Mohan performing the groundbreaking ceremony near the Hoodi Gate.
The station, located between Krishnarajapuram and Whitefield, is the nearest point for IT professionals employed at ITPL and surrounding areas. The Hoodi halt station is slated to be over in six months.
Lauding the MP for providing `1.75 crore from MPLAD funds for setting up the station, Aravind Limbavale, Mahadevapura MLA, called upon corporates to provide other facilities at the station. “ITPL employees will benefit when the station becomes functional and so the companies could pitch in with contribution to improving the station under their Corporate Social Responsibility initiative,” he said.
Mohan announced a sum of `20 lakh from the MPLAD fund for providing steel benches at the City railway station. “The station would be ready within six months and six pairs of trains would stop at Hoodi halt station,” he said.
The station will have two high-level platforms, two water taps, 12 lighting poles, two platform shelters running into 50 sq metres each, a toilet, granite benches and one room for a ticket booking agent, the MP said.
Sanjiv Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, Bengaluru Division, said two trains to Bangarpet, two to Marikuppam, one to Kolar and one to Arakkonam from the City station would have a halt at Hoodi. Agarwal also called upon corporates to help out with amenities at the Hoodi station. “A Foot Over Bridge to connect both the platforms will definitely be required when the station gets completed,” he said.
“Presently, passengers board and detrain at a point called Satellite Goods Whitefield Station unauthorisedly, which is dangerous as trains keep coming from both directions,” he added. The halt at Hoodi is likely to be for one minute, said a top railway official.
New Road Soon
Limbavale also announced that BDA had already called for tenders to build a road near the station. Earlier, PC Mohan was surrounded by irate residents, who demanded a proper road be laid in the open space near the station. “We have been requesting it for the last 10 years and no action has been taken,” the residents said.