Guest Column: Big leap for twin cities, sanction semi-high speed trains too'

The completion of the doubling and electrification of the railway track between Bengaluru and Mysuru has enhanced rail connectivity between the two cities in a big way. This is a major railway infrastructure project that saw cost sharing between the government of Karnataka and the railways in the ratio 66:33 for the doubling and 50:50 for electrification, with the former contributing Rs 581 crore and the railways, Rs 409 crore. This will enable the running of dedicated superfast trains between the two cities in less than 100 minutes and will help bring down road accidents.

Doubling of the railway infrastructure has now enabled the cultural city of Mysyuru which attracts investment in IT, manufacturing, tourism and education, to have direct train connectivity with all metros, places of pilgrimage like Shirdi, Varanasi, Tiru pathi, and Thanjavur, and most places of tourism interst like Udaipur, Jaipur, Bijapur and Ajmer. Also, now more train services can be run from Mysuru to Chikballapur, Kolar and Doddaballapur in the near future. Running dedicated superfast trains like the Shatabdi between Mysuru and Bengaluru will make travel more enjoyable and help attract more tourists to the city as Bengaluru is well connected by air to major cities across world.

Now there is huge demand for adding more train services from Mysuru to other cities of Karnataka as well. Electrification will encourage running of more electric trains, including MEMUs, to meet the demand for local travel in and around Mysuru and will reduce the pollution caused by diesel-run trains.

The Railway Minister should sanction semi- high speed trains between Bengaluru and Mysuru to bring travel time down to 60 minutes and further enhance their running capacity by eliminating all level crossings, and strengthening and fencing the tracks.