Chaotic railway entry points to Bengaluru: A mess that needs sorting out

With multiple agencies and stakeholders working in silos, railway station redevelopment is seen more as a cosmetic exercise than a boost to basic functionality

A chaotic mess of narrow stairways, broken pathways and poorly lit platforms in deep decay. This is how a hi-tech city with global ambitions greets you with the creaky infrastructure of its railway entry points. On the outer periphery of Bengaluru, as lakhs of people struggle with their heavy luggage to get in and out of trains, stations cry out for an urgent functionality upgrade. Redevelopment, as passengers scream out in desperation, should go beyond aesthetics.

Off the bizarrely crowded Old Madras Road, the K.R. Puram railway station stands as a telling proof of everything that a critical rail head, a gateway to the city, should not be. Stretched far beyond its capacity, the station is today one of the city’s most crowded. Over 180 trains halt and pass by the four platforms here, serving an estimated 25,000 passengers daily. Yet, the station lies there in desperate need of a total overhaul.

At Yeshwanthpura railway terminal, another hyper-busy rail head at the city’s other end, a flashy steel canopy built at ₹14 crore is pulled down to make way for a redevelopment plan. No one asked for the canopy, nor did they know how the new plan will improve their access to the trains. As aesthetic structures are dismantled and refitted, thousands of passengers – young, old and the disabled – struggle without a bridge to get into the nearby Metro Station.

Connectivity is a joke at most of these stations, with passengers left at the mercy of the expensive auto rickshaws and cabs. BMTC buses, if present, are grossly inadequate, while Metro stations are often a struggling distance away without access-friendly bridges. Escalators and lifts are conspicuous by their absence, inevitably forcing the harried passengers to precariously hang on to rusted railings as they take one step after another on unfriendly stairs. 

Zero consultation

“There is a total lack of any consultation with the actual users in station redevelopment. Someone sitting in Hubli or Delhi or maybe, even Bengaluru, decides in their own silos, designs something and executes it,” notes Rajkumar Dugar, a seasoned advocate for sustainable rail mobility. “They just go with looks. For instance, we have seen how so many things went wrong with the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Terminal in Baiyappanahalli,” he points out.

Built from scratch, the new SMVT Terminal mimics the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in its aesthetic canopy and frontage but severely falls short in functionality. Leakages, and flooding are recurring complaints. But the biggest problem is inadequate connectivity to other modes of transport. “It is like putting the cart before the horse. You make the station and then land up in a mess. The moment you improve a station with so many platforms and other facilities, new trains will start and for those new services and new footfalls, additional connectivity is required,” says Rajkumar.

Serious coordination gaps

This, he observes, clearly indicates a lack of coordination between the railways, which are under the Central government and the State Government agencies such as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The SMVT Terminal is far from the Baiyappanahalli Metro Station, with proposed pedestrian connectivity through the NGEF land nowhere in sight.

At Banaswadi station, a key entry and exit point for hundreds of Kerala-bound passengers, the narrow access roads mean BMTC buses are not an option. Arriving by the early morning train, commuters have no choice but to book an Ola or Uber and wait for long, or surrender to the dictates of the bargaining autorickshaw drivers. “There are no prepaid counters or traffic police booths to streamline things and help the passengers,” says Muraleedharan, convenor of the Karnataka-Kerala Travellers Forum. Although a new bridge was installed, there are no escalators or lifts at the station.

Under the Amrit Bharat Station redevelopment scheme, 15 stations in the Bengaluru divisional jurisdiction are proposed to be given a facelift. K.R. Puram and Whitefield are the two stations identified on the Bengaluru-Jolarpettai Junction route. Platform upgrades, escalators, lifts, parking area development, resting rooms and beautification are part of the redevelopment agenda.

Big on paper

On paper, the proposed front elevation of the K.R. Puram station’s three entries appears imposing. Beyond aesthetics, the redevelopment plan provisions a VIP lounge, Divyangjan toilets, a waiting hall upgrade, escalators at the first and second platforms, lifts at all four platforms, improved signages and area for future commercial development. A reality check shows excavators at work, although completion could take well over a year.

But should basic infrastructural tweaks be kept pending for that long? A spot visit reveals the full extent of the passenger’s struggles. A limping middle-aged woman with a walker had a harrowing time climbing the narrow stairway on Platform-3, struggling her way through a crowd of passengers coming down from the bridge above. The pain was writ large on the face of this passenger, a railway attendant herself.  

Awaiting a MEMU train to Bangarpet, another passenger Padmavathy rues the lack of proper access points to quickly get in and out of the station. “The skywalk to the Metro Station is now ready, but they have shut the other exit to the road from platform 1,” she complains. A fellow passenger, Ravi Kumar from KGF suggests a subway to link all the platforms and the road outside.

The redevelopment process might be underway now, but the pleas by passengers for proper bridge connectivity have been ignored for over a decade. Once they endured the tough climb up the stairway and got onto the road, crossing the Old Madras Road under the cable-bridge was a perfect recipe for disaster. Carrying heavy luggage, they had to brave the chaotic traffic risking lives.

A bridge too far

At Yeswanthpura, commuters and citizen activists had been asking for a bridge linking the railway and Metro stations for years. “The Metro station should have been connected to the railway Foot Over Bridge soon after it was operationalised. Nobody should have come to the road. We had spoken to the railway DRMs, BMRCL MDs several times, but in vain,” recalls Rajkumar.

With multiple agencies and stakeholders working in silos, station redevelopment is seen more as a cosmetic exercise than a boost to basic functionality. The way ahead, say commuters and railway experts alike, is to divert the crores of rupees now being spent on aesthetics to infra upgrades as suggested by the users themselves. And if the elected MPs from the city give full-throated support to these chosen projects, the stations could be redeveloped in a jiffy, and in ways that will actually benefit the all-important passenger.

Published - November 26, 2024 09:00 am IST