Travails of a Hosur commuter

Nischith N | NT

Bengaluru is getting back to normal and the government has lifted the Covid-19 restrictions. Many offices have now opened and companies have either scrapped work-from-home or settled for a hybrid model.

However, things are far from normal for those people who used to commute to the city from Hosur during the pre-Covid days. The South Western Railways (SWR) is yet to restore DEMU passenger train services between Yeshwantpur and Hosur. The commuters are demanding that SWR should bring back these commuter trains that used to operate on a daily basis before the Covid lockdown.

“Some of the trains that were highly patronized during the pre-Covid lockdown were Yeshwantpur – Hosur passenger DEMU which used to run on all days except Sunday. But after the lockdown these passenger trains, which ran in the morning hours to cater to the needs of the office goers were not re-introduced. We would urge the SWR officials to bring back the daily morning passenger train from Yeshwantpur to Hosur and in the opposite direction,” says Pradeep A.K., a regular commuter of the route.

According to the reports, Yeshwantpur–Hosur passenger DEMU was used by 1,500 plus passengers daily. Out of the seven railway routes from Bengaluru (towards Hosur, Bangarpet, Chikkaballapura, Doddaballapura, Tumakuru, Kunigal and Mysuru) the only route from Bengaluru which acts as the Gateway to the South is Baiyyappanahalli –Hosur. Major parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu are accessed via this route.

Also there was a long pending demand of doubling this line which finally got a budget approval in 2016– 017 with Rs 374 crore and work started in 2019. On the Byappanahalli-Hosur corridor, SWR claims the doubling of Carmelaram-Heelalige section will be commissioned by this year, followed by Heelalige-Anekal, Carmelaram-Bellandur, Anekal-Hosur and Byappanahalli-Bellandur.

For the Yeshwantpur- Channasandra line, K-RIDE is planning to commission the HebbalLottegollahalli section by March 2023. After that, YeshwantpurLottegollahalli and Hebbal-Channasandra will be completed.

The suspended trains are 06591/06592 and 76523/76524 (YPR – HSRA - YPR) DEMU which leave Yeshwantpur from 6 am Hosur by 8 and reaches and 6514/56513 (SBC – KIK – SBC) passenger which leave KSR by 6.45 am and reaches Hosur by 9 am.

“The timing was very convenient and people were used to it for the daily commute. Due to this pandemic the services were cancelled which now forced the people to depend on the road transport which is already packed. Most of the IT people use these services to reach Carmelaram, Bellandur and many other areas. So SWR should to restore it at the earliest and they should also run the Yeshwantpur – Dharmapuri DEMU on a daily basis, including Sundays, as it was during pre-Covid days,” says Umamageswaran, railway activist.

The activists urge the CBENZM (Coimbatore Junction to Hazrat Nizamuddin) (12647/12648) Kongu Express to run via Dharmapuri to Hosur route as usual like pre-lockdown times, for the benefit of passengers.