The Bangalore division of the South Western Railways (SWR) has finally managed to get 3.3 acres of land of the Binny Mills area to help them expand the City Railway Station.
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), in a land swap, has allotted the Binny Mills property to the Railways, in exchange of 3.16 acres of Railways land.
The SWR authorities have provided the BBMP 3.16 acres of Railway land for the construction of the Okalipuram Corridor, a flyover connecting Majestic to Fountain Circle in Rajajinagar.
The 16-acre Binny Mills land has been a demand of the SWR authorities for a long time so as to allow the expansion of the fast-choking City Railway Station.
“Though our primary demand for more land remains pending, the allotted 3.3 acres will help the City Railway station expand the pit line from its present 18-coach facility to a 24-coach facility and improve efficiency," said Divisional Manager Anil Kumar Agarwal.
He added that the new facility could possibly ease some pressure off the City Railway Station, but ideally, the station needed a lot more land in order to meet its increasing passenger footfalls.
Partial notification
Agarwal said Railways was yet to get complete possession of the land. He said, “On February 12, only a partial notification was issued by the BBMP. The complete possession has been pending since then.”
Agarwal said the delay was due to the change in government and that he was expecting the complete possession shortly.
He said that he was not too optimistic about any further acquisition of the Binny Mills land as the State government had planned to acquire the rest of the land for its commuter rail project, which will help connect the satellite towns to the Central Business District.