BENGALURU: Damaged walls of an old stone bridge near Krishnarajapuram railway station delayed trains by two to three hours in the Bengaluru railway Division on Friday evening. Trains running between Bengaluru and Chennai on the route were affected, inconveniencing passengers.
Chief Public Relations Officer, SWR, Aneesh Hegde, told The New Indian Express, “Around 6 pm, it was observed that walls of an old small, masonry bridge on which the track is laid was damaged, and the stones were falling out. As a precaution, the trains are being run on the other line through manual mode operations.”
The restoration work is on and the track will be made fit for operation within four hours, he added.The KSR Bengaluru-Jolarpettai (Train no. 06555) suffered a major delay. Among other trains behind schedule were KSR Bengaluru-Marikuppam MEMU Special (Train no. 06263), which had nearly 1,000 passengers.
Prasanna Kumar, a public sector employee who was sitting in a train, said, “Every day, I board the train at 6.10 pm at KSR and reach Bangarpet by 7.50 pm. But on Friday, something was wrongright from the start. It stopped at Cantonment for 20 minutes, then at Baiyappanahalli for 90 minutes and stopped at K R Puram now. I think I will reach my station only by 10 pm.”
Building contractor Venugopal, his co-traveller, said, “Normally I reach my house by 9 pm. Daily, I travel from Bengaluru to Tekal for work. The train has been held up at K R Puram and it is already 8.30 pm.”
Homemaker Shanti said, “I boarded the train at Bengaluru East at 6.30 pm. It is already 9.20 pm. I really do not know when I will reach my house at KGF tonight.”