Bengaluru will be one of the cities in the country where the Vande Metro will be introduced, according to railway authorities.
“Being one of the most important urban centres in India, Bengaluru will definitely be one of the first cities to get the Vande Metro,” South Western Railway (SWR) General Manager Sanjeev Kishore said here on Friday.
According to him, ongoing railway projects in Bengaluru, specifically the doubling and quadrupling of lines and the creation of infrastructure for maintaining Vande Bharat trains, would come in handy when the Vande Metro is ready for launch.
Towns located within a 100-km radius of Bengaluru, such as Tumakuru and Hindupur, could get the Vande Metro, which would essentially be like a local train but run at a much faster speed and cover longer distances, Kishore explained.
Answering a question about the plans to decongest KSR Bengaluru, he said yard remodelling works at the railway station might be completed by June 2023, a target he described as “ambitious”.
He added that there was no proposal for building a terminal at Hejjala. On improving access to the SMVT Baiyappanahalli, Bengaluru Divisional Railway Manager Shyam Singh said that it was for the BBMP to submit detailed plans. The railways would extend the necessary cooperation, he added.
Kishore said the SWR had “no unresolved coordination issues” with the Railway Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka), which is building the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project. He, however, said some issues were complex and needed to be escalated to the zonal authorities.
The SWR is also conducting a feasibility study on doubling the Yelahanka-Devanahalli line, he said.
