Aug 31 rail yatra to push for suburban rail

In a bid to highlight the importance of suburban rail network in the city, volunteers from Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) will take out a rail yatra from Yeshwantpur and Hosur Road railway station on Friday.

According to the members, the yatra ‘#ModaluTrainBeku’ aims to make people aware of the existence of the train network that covers most part of the IT corridor, including places such as Bellandur, Sarjapur and Carmelaram.

“Many of the stations along the route lack maintenance and the government should develop them,” said Srinivas Alavilli of CfB. Tara Krishnaswamy, another representative from CfB, said that the state government should push for the project at the earliest.

“Work regarding doubling or quadrupling the track, signalling, frequency and timing of the existing tracks need to be done,” she said. “Moreover, it is important to make people know that such a facility is available and we need to build on it. This is the reason to conduct the yatra,” Tara added.

Member of Parliament P C Mohan from the BJP has also written a letter to Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy seeking not to delay the project anymore.

“For more than seven months, the proposal has been pending before the state despite the Centre sanctioning Rs 12,061 crore for the project,” he said in the letter.

Many organisations including Bellandur Jothege, Whitefield Rising, Bicycle Mayor for Bangalore, Wipro, Carmelaram Unites, Karnataka Rail Prayanikara Vedike, Bangalore Apartment Federation, Kasamuktha Bengaluru are supporting the yatra.

The volunteers have also asked the public to join them in large numbers.

The members from CfB will submit a list of demands regarding the project to the Chief Secretary T M Vijayabhaskar after the yatra.

The yatra will begin from Yeshwantpur at 2.55 pm and will reach Heelalige at 3.51 pm. The return journey will be from Heelalige at 5.14 pm.