According to Akhil Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager of SWR, Bangalore Division, proposals have been sent to zonal railway headquarters in Hubli which will either approve it or forward it to the railway Board for consideration. "The proposal was to start the service with the rolling stock available with the division but would still require lot of other arrangements to be made. We will have to look for a link, loco and driver for the service," Agarwal said to The New Indian Express.

Travelers thus will have one more option to reach BIA apart from the Vayu Vajra bus service, private cars and taxis. The rail service will cost Rs. 8, far cheaper than Vayu Vajra, which charges the present lowest, between Rs.100 and Rs.150. The new trains will be in addition to two existing passenger train services operated between the city and Chickaballapur.

The new trains may take 80 minutes to reach the airport station. However, the running time could be decreased and the frequency increased once the operations stabilized, Mr. Agarwal said.

But even after the train service starts, it might not be convenient to the commuters as the closest railway station the trains would touch is Devanahalli, which is a few kilometres from the airport, The New Indian Express reports.

No alighting or boarding platform on a temporary basis can be provided at a point closer to the airport as even for a halt, fresh approval from the higher authorities would be needed. The current proposal for service does not include any such facility, Agarwal said. However, the railways is in talks with the State Government to provide land near the trumpet interchange to the airport on nH-7 to build a station. “Even after the state government provides us with land, we will have to conduct a study to check if there is any technical problem like existence of a gradient in building a station at that land. For that, fresh approvals would be required,” Agarwal said.

High Speed Rail Link out of favour

The Indian State Government is considering to give up the proposed HSRL to Bangalore International Airport (BIA). But, according to Times of India, those who have done in-depth research for the long-due project, swear by its relevance in a city where air traffic is surging every year.

The 33-km rail link from BRV Parade Grounds to BIA was originally scheduled for completion by March, 2012, at a cost of Rs 3,800 crore. The Karnataka State Industrial Investment and Development Corporation (KSIIDC), the project's nodal agency, is yet to publish responses to queries raised during the pre-conference meeting with potential bidders on September 15. After extending the publishing date five times, the KSIIDC maintains the queries are still under the government's `consideration'.

As many as 25 big companies, including Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Realty and Infrastructure (both India), Mitsubishi Corporation, (Japan), CAF, Construcciones Network Ltd and IERS (South Africa), Dywidag (Germany) and Alstom Transport (France), have interests in the project, proposed to be implemented on a build-operate-and-transfer basis on 30-year lease.

With a maximum fare of Rs 150 (from Parade Grounds), a once-in-five minute frequency, a maximum speed of 160 kmph and a 24-minute commute from the city centre, there should be no question about HSRL's viability,'' believes S N Venkata Rao, adviser to the DMRC.

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