Bengaluru: 278-Km Circular Rail Network To Come On Outskirts, Connecting Devanahalli & Hoskote

South Western Railways (SWR) is planning a 278-km long circular rail network on the outskirts of Bengaluru. With the telos to reduce the pressure on existing rail networks and complement the works of Namma Metro and Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (BSRP), this rail network will improve the connectivity of Bengaluru’s neighbouring towns.

Bengaluru To Get Circular Rail Network On Outskirts

According to a report by The Times Of India, Sanjeev Kishore, the SWR general manager revealed that the Ministry of Railways has already given consent to SWR to conduct a final location survey to build the 278-km long circular train network on the outskirts of Bengaluru. This circular network will connect towns in Karnataka like Hoskote, Devanahalli (near Bengaluru Airport), Nidvanda, Solur, Malur, Heelalige, and Doddaballapur.

The new rail network aims to decongest the city’s existing bottlenecks. More importantly, the government wishes to increase the city’s rail capacity with this new circular rail network. A ₹7.2 crore Final Location Survey (FLS) is being carried out by SWR. For this, authorities are mapping out stations and chalking yard plans. Also, they are sorting out land and civil structure requirements for the ambitious project.

Commuters can expect comfortable and budget-friendly train services provided on this 278-km long circular rail network. An SWR official revealed to TOI that people travelling from satellite towns to Bengaluru will benefit from the new train service. The trains will operate in both directions on this railway network. To understand how this proposed railway network will work the SWR official threw more light on this.

Will Decongest Existing Networks & Namma Metro

He revealed that trains will operate from Salem line to Mysuru line via the Bengaluru-Byappanahalli- Bengaluru Cantonment-Bengaluru city section. Currently, trains in Bengaluru are facing severe congestion. Certain trains are detained to create a path for others. So, goods train operates only during late-night hours when there are fewer passenger trains. Often goods trains run outside the city area creating a waste of locomotive hours and other resources.

Apart from the ambitious South Western Railways’ circular rail network, the government plans to expand Namma Metro to 175 km by 2025. And then further expand it to 314 km by 2040. Meanwhile, Namma Metro’s new 43-km Purple Line from Whitefield to Challaghatta is reported to have cut traffic congestion by 14 per cent. The average daily ridership in a short span of time on that line has itself risen to 80,000.

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In fact, BMRCL Managing Director Anjum Parwez revealed to Moneycontrol that the new sections of Namma Metro which became operational on October 9 have received an overwhelming response from Bengalureans. In his words, the daily ridership increased by 80,000 and it has consistently reached 7 lakh.

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