The long-pending proposal to quadruple the railway tracks and ease traffic on the busy Bengaluru Cantonment-Whitefield stretch has finally received a push with the Ministry of Railways granting ₹492.87 crore for the project. This is likely to benefit 62,000 daily commuters on this stretch.
This means that there will be two additional lines, one on either side of the existing lines, on this stretch. The project, which was under consideration for close to 20 years, was shelved only to be revived in 2017 in the face of growing public demand.
According to officials, work on quadrupling the Cantonment-Whitefield stretch will begin immediately and is expected to be completed in two years. This stretch of 25 km has six stations — Bengaluru Cantonment, Bengaluru East, Baiyappanahalli, Krishnarajapuram, Hoodi and Whitefield.
“All metros in India have more than two lines. But until recently, Bengaluru did not have even a double line. As a result, trains had to be stopped to make way for others. It would take at least one hour to reach KSR station from Whitefield,” said E. Vijaya, Chief Public Relations Officer, South Western Railway.
She added that a detailed estimate was done on the land required for the project and that it would be submitted to the State government for consideration.
Finding land may be a problem
The Railways would like to extend the quadrupling of lines between Cantonment and KSR Bengaluru stations, but admits that finding additional land will be pose a problem. “While the intention exists, finding land may be a problem,” a railway official said.
The Railway Ministry, in the budget this year, had announced doubling of tracks on Yesvantpur-Baiyyappanahalli-Channasandra and Baiyyappanahalli- Hosur routes. This is in addition to the recently completed doubling of tracks on the Yesvantpur-Yelahanka and Yelahanka-Channasandra routes.
