Railways eyes land swap with BBMP

They want the Binny Mills land in exchange for land bits owned by them

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) ambitious Rs 115-crore Traffic-Free Corridor connecting Okalipuram with Fountain Circle depends on which of the aforementioned two departments succeed in convincing the government to part with the land.

The Railways have been nursing hopes of major expansion plans for the City railway station owing to the need to cope with the increasing traffic, using its land behind the station.

However, in the backdrop of the BBMP project requiring bits of Railway land, the latter has proposed a straight swap. It has sought three acres of the Binny Mills land in exchange for its land required by the BBMP. Sources in the Railways told Deccan Herald that if the deal goes through, the service yard/line in the City station, along with the coach yard near platforms 4 and 10 will be shifted making room for more platforms.

Traffic-free corridor

The BBMP sources said the swap of lands is the only way the Central Government would budge to make way for the traffic-free corridor.

“The BBMP is looking at bits and pieces of Railway land between Okalipuram and Fountain Circle. Overall, the Palike needs three acres of the Railway land for the construction of the corridor,” informed the source.

Accordingly, the land which used to host the tents of the Venus Circus in the days gone by, the Railway Quarters which has been home for many Railway employees and other portions of the area would make way for flyovers and underpasses for easy movement of traffic on that route.

On whether the deal would involve money too, sources said the Railways needed land, not money, as they are in dire need of land for their expansion plans.

The corridor intends to cut across the Railway land between Rajajinagar entrance and  Fountain Circle (Khoday's Junction) in Majestic area with a series of flyovers and underpasses. Under the proposed scheme, the corridor will have one underpass and two loops of flyover apart from a ground-level grade seperator.

Also, the project is going to feature two RUBs, one below the Bangalore-Chennai railway line and another below the Bangalore-Tumkur line.

Meanwhile, the KSRTC has also been eyeing the Binny Mills land to construct a terminal owing to loss of space due to Metro construction.

Sources in the KSRTC said with the Metro construction beginning in Majestic, the KSRTC buses are left with no parking space and are being diverted to Shantinagar, NGEF and  Mysore Road.