Deccan Herald 22.05.2013
At last, BBMP transfers Binny Mills land to Rlys
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.
