The state government’s offer to provide 3.16 acres of land to the railways in exchange for railway land acquired for the proposed eight-lane corridor at Okalipuram will help the railways develop infrastructure and introduce more trains from Bangalore City Railway Station.
The railways can use the land to convert the present half shunting neck, used for attaching or detaching bogies to the engines, into a full shunting neck which enables them to change one full train consisting of 20 or 24 bogies at one go. At present the railways have to form a train by detaching and attaching bogies twice, often delaying trains. Moreover, this gives railways space to park trains and convert one of the existing stabling lines next to Platform No 10 into a platform. This would help railways introduce eight additional pairs of trains from the crowded station.
At present, there are 10 platforms at the station which handles around 150 trains, including 56 pairs of trains. Despite a demand for starting more trains from the station, the railways have not been able to do so and have been introducing new trains from Yeshwantpur.
Senior divisional commercial manager N Ramesh said, “The state government has to hasten the acquisition process and hand over the Binny Mill land to help us develop the much needed infrastructure and enhance efficiency. We have given them the clearance to acquire our land. We cannot say anything about converting the stabling line into a platform as the railway board has to approve the construction of new platforms.”