BENGALURU: Due to the reluctance of the Bengaluru Railway Division to introduce a one-minute halt at Tyakal railway station for a passenger train heading to Bengaluru, commuting to work is a sleepless, torrid affair for nearly 100 passengers of Tyakal village.
Falling within Malur taluk in Kolar district, employees of BHEL, ISRO, BMTC, BEML and students wake up at the unearthly hour of around 3.30 am to board the Tirupati Chamarajanagar Express which halts at 4.40 am at Tyakal station enroute to Bengaluru City. This train (No. 16220) used to stop at 5.30 am here but was rescheduled to depart early, five years ago.
What is upsetting them enormously is that the Push-Pull Bangarpet-Marikuppam Passenger launched in April 2013 passes through their station at 5.45 am but does not halt here. A simple one-minute halt for this DEMU Passenger (Train no. 66519) will change all their lives dramatically, the passengers told TNIE.
Countless representations to MLAs, MPs, different Divisional Railway Managers at Bengaluru or General Managers at Hubballi individually as well as collectively pleading for a halt here have not helped, they say.
The company bus of Prasanna Kumar, an electrician at BHEL, arrives at K R Puram bus stand at 6.45 am. “I wake up by 3.30 am and leave home at 4.15 am to board this train. It reaches K R Puram railway station at 5.30 am. Along with others who board this train from Tyakal, I while my time away at the station benches for an hour before my bus arrives,” he said. The Marikuppam train stops at Bangarpet and at Malur too. “A 60-second stoppage at Tyakal for this Passenger train will enormously help us.”
R Viswananatha, Planner at HAL, resides at Hunsikote, 1 km from Tyakal. “It is tough to rise at 4 am daily, rush to board the train and end up reaching half an hour before my 7 am shift,” he said. “When an Express train can give a halt here, why can’t a passenger train do so?” he poses.
At Anitha’s house, the entire family needs to be up at 4 am to help her attend a computer course at Atiguppe. “While I get ready, my mother readies my food and my father gets ready to drop me at the station. I end up reaching Baiyappanahalli at 6.20 am and reach Atiguppe at 7.30 am, half an hour early for class,” she says.
Asked about the grievance, a senior railway official in Bengaluru said introducing a new stoppage was not in the hands of the Bengaluru Railway Division.”If we get any representation, we will study its feasibility and get the permission from Headquarters (Hubballi) for it.”