Heelalige
Industries in Electronic City have been pushing for local trains between Bengaluru City and Heelalige, which is about 4 km from the IT hub. The Electronics City Industries Association (ELCIA) has offered to take care of the maintenance at Heelalige railway station.
Software giant Infosys has been pursuing the subject with the railway higher-ups for the past few weeks after its founder NR Narayana Murthy first came up with the idea last year. Murthy even discussed it informally with the Centre recently.
Heelalige comes on the Bengaluru-Salem section, and ELCIA thinks it can be exploited further. The
association plans to rope in transport utility BMTC to run feeder services between Electronic City and the railway station.
"I recently met Railway Board officials in Delhi, and they have agreed to consider our proposal," Infosys executive vice-president Ramadas Kamath told ET. Heelalige is about 40 km from the city railway station
The 900-acre Electronic City is home to IT and manufacturing companies like Infosys, Wipro TCS, Tech Mahindra HP, 3M, Tejas, besides several SMEs. According to a note Kamath handed to the railway minister recently, the industrial estate accounts for Rs 40,000 crore of turnover, has 180-plus firms and employs 125,000 people directly, and about one lakh indirectly.
The estate, which is growing at a fast pace, has fuelled growth of a larger ecosystem including hospitals, shopping arcades and residential areas in the vicinity.
"Local trains to Heelalige will help people living in north and central Bengaluru in a big way. They now commute for two hours or more one way to reach their offices. The train con ..
Good to see ELCIA and Infosys coming forward on this Commuter Rail / Suburban Rail / Local Train
With ELCIA, WEPPIA, BIAL, Tumkur Industrial Association coming forward and understanding the importance of the Suburban Rail, will the GOK, Railway Board still wants to delay in approval of the project.
Forward this Blog entry
