Banaswadi railway station, a disaster waiting to happen

The Banaswadi railway station, like the one at Whitefield, is a disaster waiting to happen. Although the station does not see as much traffic as Whitefield, at least 10 passenger trains pass through the station every day in each direction.

The Banaswadi station has a road under the bridge with absolutely no pedestrian facilities. With residential areas on one side of the station and the main road connecting to areas such as Lingarajapuram, Cox Town and so on, there are people crossing the station area all day long. This includes school children from nearby areas and residents of the Railway Colony, besides regular passengers.

Says Prem Kumar, a student of 8th standard who casually walked across the track on Monday afternoon: “The road under the bridge is an extremely roundabout way and this is just easier.”  When asked if he realised how dangerous it was, he justifies, “The trains sound their horns when they approach. Plus, we can see the trains coming.”

Durgesh M, who works in a tiles store, believes that when it comes to pedestrians, crossing the tracks are safer than using the RUB. “Without a footpath on the RUB, we have to walk on the road. The road is narrow, and there are no dividers or anything. There are vehicles coming in at all times. At least, we know when the trains are coming, and we can see the trains and wait for them to pass,” he remarks. “We need a foot overbridge urgently,” he hastens to add.

What makes the situation at the Banaswadi station slightly more alarming is that there are no GRP or RPF personnel at the station to warn or book cases against trespassers during the day. Those who cross the tracks, simply get away with it.

A Railways official at the station contends that whether there is a foot overbridge or not, people would continue to use the tracks to cross over. “If people are unwilling to use the road underbridge, and seeing the situation in other stations, we doubt that people would actually use the overbridge by and large,” he says.

KR Puram railway station will be modernised
Considering the growth in the KR Puram railway station, the SWR has plans to expand the station in order to accommodate passengers that use the station.

According to Anil Kumar Agarwal, the divisional railway manager of the Bangalore Division of SWR, the modernisation plan of the KR Puram station will be added to the Whitefield-Kolar project. “The Whitefield-Kolar project is expected to cost around `400 crore and the modernisation of the station will be added to this,” he said.

The modernisation of the station will include widening platform one from 240 metres to 540 metres and increasing the length of platform 2 and 3 to from 16 coach capacity to 24 coach capacity, he said. He added that the proposal has been submitted to the CEO construction and is waiting the approval of the board.