Bengaluru-Mysuru track-doubling by year-end

With the hurdles over shifting Tipu Sultan’s magazine being cleared, the delayed Bengaluru-Mysuru track-doubling project is expected to be completed by year-end.

South Western Railway Divisional Railway Manager Rajkumar Lal said at the weekend that with the finalisation of the contract for shifting Tipu’s armoury near Srirangapattana, a major hurdle had been removed.

He was confident of the doubling work being completed by August-September this year.

Besides its completion, two important sections over the Mysore division on the Bengaluru-Huballi broad gauge main line which will be taken up for doubling, to increase capacity to handle more trains, and at higher speeds.

These sections are Tumakuru-Arsikere and Chikjajur-Hubballi. He said, these works have been included in the current year’s budget and hoped that they would be executed faster. For foolproof security, the Mysore Railway station had been brought under the Integrated Security System (ISS) with installation of an additional 16 cameras, taking the total to 36. Under Vehicle Scanning System (UVSC) to scan the undergear of road vehicles was ready for commissioning.

‘Operation 5 Minutes’ scheme had been introduced at the Mysore station (in two slots for issuing tickets to Bengaluru) and Chamarajanagar (one slot in the morning for tickets to Mysuru) to clear peak hour rush. More destination-specific counters would be opened at Mysuru and other important stations like Shivamogga, Davanagere, Hassan, Arsikere and Harihar, the DRM said. Fully-mechanised laundry for supply of bed rolls to A/C passengers would be commissioned shortly at Mysore for Rs 99.62 lakh.

The division will have 23 Smart Card-based Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) by June-end, five at Mysore, three each at Shimoga Town and Davangere, two each at Hassan, Bhadravati, Arsikere, Harihar, Haveri and Birur.

Karnataka Bank has been awarded contract for installation of ATMs at Mysore and Hassan Railway stations. All India Helpline No.138 was functional round-the-clock from February 26 for  registering complaints related to medical emergency, cleanliness , food, catering, coach maintenance, linen, among others.

Food plazas at Mysore and Davangere were entrusted with the responsibility to take orders of passengers for supplying food onboard the Mysore-Bangalore-Mysore Chamundi express and Mysore-Dadar-Mysore Sharavati weekly express.

Highlighting initiatives taken by the Division in the recent past for providing better amenities for passengers, Lal said augmentation of composition of trains had been done in the following trains to increase the capacity in reserved segment in Mysore-New Delhi (Nizamuddin) Swarnajayanthi Weekly Express, Mysore-Chennai Weekly SF Exp., Mysore-Chennai Shatabdi Express, Shivamogga Town-Bangalore Express, Mysore-Mayiladuthurai Exp. and Mysore-Tuticorin Express.

Important passenger amenity works proposed during 2015-16 included platform shelter at 18 stations, extension of platforms at 30 stations, improvements to platform surface, extension of platform shelter, etc. at Arsikere, Mysore, and facilities for the disabled at 32 stations among others.