Vaishnaw, who is minister for railways, information broadcasting and information technology, took the train ride from the airport to the Cantt station, where he reviewed the progress of ongoing projects and some planned ones. The journey, he said, took 35 minutes to complete, and when commissioned in a few months’ time, may take five minutes more.
The shortest route to the Bengaluru airport from the Cantt railway station is 32-km long, but the city’s notorious traffic jams make the travel time unpredictable.
V Somanna, minister of state (railways) and Lok Sabha member from Tumakuru, will be leading the project that will take the railway line into the sprawling airport. Last year, he had inspected the airport line project and most of the work planned had been done, the Union minister said.
He reviewed the redevelopment work that is under way at the Cantt and Yeshwantpur railway stations. The work on at the Cantt station, the minister said, would result in 18,000 sq m of additional developed area with facilities near the tracks.
The two stations in Bengaluru are among the 1,137 stations being modernised in India, in what is being billed as the world’s largest redevelopment work of this kind. Such projects used to take decades, the minister said, adding that this year, 1,050 stations would be ready and inaugurated.
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Circular railway The Railway Board is expected to finalise the detailed project report (DPR) for Bengaluru’s circular rail by December. The railways conceptualised the circular railway for Bengaluru last year, with seven spokes connecting the city. The lines would connect Bengaluru with surrounding towns and cities like Tumakuru and Mysuru.
The minister said that most people living in those cities and working in Bengaluru can commute daily and get back home faster.
According to Vaishnaw, the railway ministry had a capital expenditure of $29 billion last year and constructed 5,300 km of new tracks, which is more than the entire rail network of Switzerland.
