Bengaluru: Tech hub Whitefield today houses hundreds of industries, IT parks, malls, international schools, hospitals and residential spaces. Due to the massive traffic jams from Old Airport Road to Varthur and Old Madras Road to Whitefield Road, many have started opting for passenger trains passing through Hoodi Railway Station which is housed right behind Prestige Shantiniketan Apartments.
It’s time the railway authorities looked at upgrading the halt station to help the working class in and around ITPL. Now, a few concerned citizens and members of Praja RAAG are trying to pull in funds to revive the unofficial railway halt station. In a week they will submit a petition to the DRM and the union railway minister.
Vaidhyanathan, who resides in Ulsoor and works in ITPL, saves a minimum of 45 minutes as he makes use of the passenger train from Byapanahaali. He says, “At 9.45 am, I take the metro from Ulsoor and I reach Byappanahalli.
Thankfully, now there is a bridge connecting the metro and the railway station so it takes me a minute to get to the station. I have two passenger trains that I can board and they arrive between 9.50 am to 10 am and by 10.10 am I am at ITPL. But the problem is we have to walk on the tracks and cross over to the main road. If the authorities provide the basic amenities, 1000 more people will benefit from it.”
He added, “I see many women, including pregnant women, using these trains -- most of them come from Majestic, Rajajinagar areas. They easily save two hours of travel time. It is challenging for them to cross the tracks.”
Expressing a similar opinion, Satya, who resides at Mysore Road and works in an IT company in Whitefield, says, “I take any early morning passenger train that halts in Whitefield or Hoodi from Majestic railway station and I always board my return train from Hoodi. But there is still no proper infrastructure in the Hoodi railway station. More and more people are coming out to take the train. At present, they stand near the railway tracks and jump into the train. If proper facilities are provided, it will benefit a lot of people, especially the IT employees.”
Around 3 to 4 lakh people travel to ITPL and nearby areas every day. Half of the people come in contract buses or public transport. There seems to be a huge potential for the railways.
Sanjeev Dyamannavar, who is spearheading the campaign, says, “There are around 1000 IT people using the Hoodi Station but there is no proper platform or amenities. So, we have decided to take the responsibility and initiate something. We will present the petition shortly. We will pull in some funds and request the railways to fill in the balance amount to upgrade the station.”
He added, “We are in discussions with big IT companies to make contributions as part of their corporate social responsibility.”
Besides, once BMRCL takes up the metro construction work from KR Puram and Whitefield, there will be huge traffic chaos in that stretch. So the civic agencies can look at the options of exploring the train connections. If there are proper train services from Bangalore city, Kengeri, Yelahanka, Yeshwanthpur with at least 2-3 services in both directions, most of the traffic jams can be controlled. All they need to do is upgrade the Hoodi halt station.
