Electronics City Association promises to take care of Heelalige station if facility is provided
Industries in Electronic City have been pushing for local trains between Bengaluru City and Heelalige, which is about 4 km from the IT hub. The Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) has offered to take care of the maintenance at Heelalige railway station.Software giant Infosys has been pursuing the subject with the railway higher-ups for the past few weeks after its founder NR Narayana Murthy first came up with the idea last year.
Murthy even discussed it informally with the Centre recently.
Heelalige comes on the Bengaluru-Salem section, and ELCIA thinks it can be exploited further. The association plans to rope in transport utility BMTC to run feeder services between Electronic City and the railway station.
“I recently met Railway Board officials in Delhi, and they have agreed to consider our proposal,” Infosys executive vice-president Ramadas Kamath told ET. Heelalige is about 40 km from the city railway station.
The 900-acre Electronic City is home to IT and manufacturing companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Tech Mahindra, HP, 3M, Tejas, besides several SMEs. According to a note Kamath handed to the railway minister recently, the industrial estate accounts for .
`40,000 crore of turnover, has 180-plus firms and employs 125,000 people directly, and about one lakh indirectly. The estate, which is growing at a fast pace, has fuelled growth of a larger ecosystem including hospitals, shopping arcades and residential areas in the vicinity.
“Local trains to Heelalige will help people living in north and central Bengaluru in a big way. They now commute for two hours or more one way to reach their offices. The train connects many IT hubs including Sarjapur, Marathhalli,“ said Rama NS, CEO at ELCIA.
According to her, railways would just need to augment its existing infrastructure so that the section can take additional trips. “The railways could increase the number of trips and the number of coaches during peak hours,“ she said.
“The local train option presents an immediate, doable and relatively low-cost solution to address the traffic challenges of the city,“ Ka math added.
Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) AK Agarwal, however, reasoned that the Bengaluru City station was already choked, and Bengaluru-Sa lem section has scant spare ca pacity during peak hours.
“The Bengaluru-Heelalige is single-lane and, non-electri fied with its morning slots ful ly occupied,“ he said. The railways, according to him, is running two commuter trains from Bengaluru to Hosur in the morning stopping at Heelalige. “There are no additional paths available for running extra commuter trains,“ he added. Bengaluru and Yeshpanthpur together handle 205 train arrivals and departures a day.
The city is also connected to Electronic City by an elevated expressway. “The time has come for us to plan for multi-model transport system as in Hyderabad.
This will help people commute faster and lessen congestion on roads,“ Kamath said. It may be recalled that DV Sadananda Gowda had, in his railway budget, set aside ` . 1 crore for feasibility study for a circular train system in Bengaluru.
