Karnataka

‘Bengaluru airport station a gift from Railways’: Piyush Goyal's tweet draws flak

The rail station is being built by the Bangalore International Airport Ltd, the company managing the airport.
‘Bengaluru airport station a gift from Railways’: Piyush Goyal's tweet draws flak
‘Bengaluru airport station a gift from Railways’: Piyush Goyal's tweet draws flak
Written by:
Soumya Chatterjee
Published on: 

A tweet by Union Rail Minister Piyush Goyal taking credit for connecting the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru with the city central railway station through a rail network has not gone well with a section of Bengalrureans. While some pointed out that the project was delayed without any rationale, others pointed out that it was not the railways but the airport management which is building the station.

On Sunday, the Union Minister tweeted, “Railways' Gift to Bengaluru Flyers: Fulfilling decade-old demand of people, a halt Railway Station is coming up near Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru. Providing relief from road traffic, this facility will allow people to comfortably travel to the airport.”

Along with the text was a video with Hindi narration stating the benefit it will give to thousands of workers and flyers alike and how it will also decongest Bengaluru.

Rajkumar Dugar, convenor of Citizens for Citizens (C4C), a citizen who has been advocating for the station for long, reminded that it was the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) which is building the railway station. “The BIAL should be congratulated for doing a good job, along with the Railways for facilitating the same. But the Railways need to focus on a few things to ensure that travelling in trains to the airport becomes successful.”

He opined that technical issues like electrification of Devanahalli-Yelahanka section, setting up of a crossing station at Doddajala have to be fixed swiftly. Further he asked that the station should be given access to the Highway side and the South Western Railways should run trains to the airport and back not only from Majestic but also other routes like Cantonment, Hosur, Bangarpet, Tumakuru, etc.

TNM has earlier reported how the railway station coming up near the Kempegowda International Airport is almost in the final stages and will be ready for operation by August-end. AK Singh, General Manager, South Western Railways confirmed that trains can start any time from September with the approval of the ministry.

Tara Krishnaswamy, a Bengaluru-based citizen activist and co-founder of Citizens for Bengaluru, reminded that the wait was not for a decade but actually for 15 years and it was the failure of successive governments that the station has not been inaugurated till now. Tara, like many others pointed out that the video was made in Hindi, not Kannada or English.

Vishu Guttal, an assistant professor in Indian Institute of Science, tweeted the Minister’s tweet highlighting that the ministry took more than a decade to ready the station and the video was made in Hindi which is not majorly used by the city residents

His tweet read, “Although we knew the immense benefits of it, we took more than a decade to build a small train station, and it's not even ready yet. Made a video in a language that the majority of local people don't understand."

Many took exception to the fact that the Minister called the railway station a 'gift' to Bengalureans, when it was a legitimate demand and made using taxpeyers money.

Controversy

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