Need for rail alternative: Bengaluru airport-bound passengers stranded on flooded road

Relying exclusively on a road route to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) could get tricky.

Stuck for hours on the jammed airport road due to Tuesday’s torrential rains, some passengers missed their flights and were left hoping they had a fully functional suburban rail link as an alternative.

In the intense downpour on Tuesday evening, a lake overflowed near the Yelahanka Air Force Station, flooding the airport road and triggering extreme congestion. Several cabs and private cars headed to the airport were trapped. Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) confirmed that a few passengers missed their flights, but there were no flight delays.

Two flights were diverted to Chennai, including an IndiGo service (6E 7232) from Rajahmundry and another from Kolkata (6E 264).

The water levels had risen to almost four feet on the airport road, and after a bus broke down, the queue of vehicles only got longer. Many passengers who were anxious to reach the airport on time to catch late-night flights were clueless.

Despite the alternate road to the airport, many cab drivers opt for the wider airport road. However, they take a diversion just before the toll booth and get in through the airport’s second entrance. A bulk of the traffic congestion was near Yelahanka, way ahead of the diversion.

An airport spokesperson said the flooding was limited to only the stretch near the Air Force Station and nowhere near KIA. But the plight of passengers stuck helplessly raised serious questions about the slow progress of a dedicated airport suburban rail link that would take travellers right up to the terminal.

Commissioning of the Airport Halt Station had raised hopes that passengers from Yeswanthpura and Baiyappanahalli could alight there, take a shuttle bus operated by BIAL and reach the terminal cheaply and quickly.

However, the low frequency of trains meant there were hardly any takers for the service, which eventually was stopped during the pandemic. Restarting it in a limited manner has not helped either.