Railways forgets long-closed Thanisandra halt station; residents demand its revival

Local residents want the railways to revive the Thanisandra halt station given the need to use the existing infrastructure to run local trains with minimum expenditure as the suburban train project has hit the Covid wall.

The halt station is located next to Thanisandra Main Road on the Yelahanka-Channasandra railway line and is less than 2 km away from Manyata Tech Park. It’s surrounded by many high-rises.

But the Northeast Bengaluru neighbourhood lacks proper public transport, and people are forced to rely on private vehicles.

The railways abandoned the station over 10 years ago. In the following years, many people have petitioned the South Western Railway to revive the station which has a huge potential to boost local trains.

“It was in 2014 that the railways demolished the ticketing office building, removing the last semblance of the halt station. Over the years, they have doubled the line and electrified it. But they have forgotten the station,” said Sreenivasa Rao, who lives about a kilometre away from the site of the station.

In June, during the height of the fear over Covid-19, Rao prepared a petition and took the signatures of 424 local residents. “I sent the petition by post and e-mail to the railways. There has been no reply,” he said.

Bengaluru Divisional Railway Manager Ashok Kumar Verma said he was not aware of the closure of the station. “It must have been shut down long ago. The work has been proposed for approval by the central government. Once we get clearance and the required funds, we can take it up,” he said. It is estimated that Rs 3 crore is required to build a halt station.

At present, work on constructing a control room for an intermediate block signalling (IBS) system is going on near the site of the station. The IBS system will help increase the number of trains on the track at a given time.

Urban transport activist Sanjeev Dyamannavar said that in reply to his RTI query, the railways couldn’t remember why the halt station was shut down. “It’s unfortunate that the railways is implementing the IBS system while abandoning basic things like a halt station that can serve thousands of people. Restarting the halt station and introducing local trains on the Yelahanka-Channasandra-Hosur route will help shift thousands of people from private vehicles to public transport,” he said.

Both Rao and Dyamannavar said the government needed to take proactive steps to encourage public transport.