Bengaluru South MP wants extension of suburban rail

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya of the BJP urged the K-Ride, a joint venture of the Government of Karnataka and the Ministry of Railways to extend the service of Bengaluru suburban to Tumakuru, Ramanagara and Chikkaballapur.

Surya reviewed the progress of the Bengaluru suburban project with officials of K-Ride on Saturday. The project involves the construction of four corridors of BSRP, comprising a total length of 148.17 km and 58 new stations.

Meanwhile, the construction for Corridor 2 from Chikkabanavara to Baiyappanahalli has commenced and is progressing at an extensive rate, said the officials.

The press release also highlighted that Surya discussed various issues regarding the land acquisition and shifting of utilities among timely approval and interoperability and the issues about the capacity of existing railway stations due to congestion.

“The entire project was reviewed in detail to ensure multi-modal seamless integration with Indian Railways, metro stations, bus stops thereby to make the traveling experience more convenient and seamless to commuters and increasing ridership”, it added.

In a bid to create awareness about the project, the MP suggested that architecture students be encouraged to provide ideas for station planning and design. However, Surya had also requested Railway Minister Shri Ashwinin Vaishnaw to approve the plan in Parliament as it is essential to promote the economic growth of these stations.

K-Ride has insisted on a pre-feasibility study for the extension of BBSRP to satellite towns towards BSRP Phase 2 and the MP would put forth the same with the Ministry of Railway, added the statement.