BENGALURU: Is there a solution in the near future for passenger trains to be run punctually? With doubling of railway lines a costly and time-consuming affair, putting in place a suburban network at the earliest holds the key.
The Railway Board’s instructions when it comes to different categories of trains are quite clear, explains Sanjeev Dyamnaavar, urban traffic expert. “Trains need to be accorded priority in this order: 1. Suburban trains 2. Rajdhani/Shatabdi trains 3. Express/Mail trains and 4. Passenger trains,” he said.
“The Bangalore Railway Division needs to declare specific trains as suburban trains, which gives them priority automatically,” he said. The Yesvantpur-Hosur Passenger, the Bengaluru-Ramanagaram Passenger, Bengaluru-Whitefield MEMU and four services between Bengaluru and Bangarpet can be considered for this, he added. “Declaring of certain routes as suburban ones has been done in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Chennai,” he said.
When 15 passenger trains get converted as suburban trains under the recent approval given by the Railway Board, there will be relief from the long waits suffered by these trains. However, 12 new rakes need to be commissioned for it, of which only two will be provided this December and seven rakes will come only in the 2018-2019 financial year.
For the remaining passenger trains across the state, the only solution is doubling of tracks. “Getting approval from the Railway Board, funds from the Railway Ministry and the completion of track laying works could take at least a minimum of two years,” he said.
A top railway official said that they would be sending a proposal again to the Board shortly to reconsider doubling the railway line between Yesvantpur and Hosur. A proposal sent by former Divisional Railway Manager Sanjiv Agarwal to the Railway Board to double the section between Yesvantpur-Banaswadi-Hosur was not approved in the Railway budget presented for 2017-2018.