WIP : Nelamangala - Shravanabelagola new line!
A trip undertaken by railfans Kunal Doddanavar, Pawan Koppa, Santosh Kulkarni and Shishir Jairam to cover the status of the works-in-progress on the Nelamangala-Shravanabelagola line, a vital link to reduce the journey time between the IT capital, Bangalore and important port city, Mangalore.
While the line between Hassan and Shravanabelagola was completed 5 years back and was operated for a few months, it was shut immediately after. On the other end, the line between Chikbanavar in Bangalore and Nelamangala on the city's outskirts was completed more than 2 years back, but no train has seen the "light" of this line yet. This album covers the work in progress between these two points - Nelamangala and Shravanabelagola. A line which may take many more months / years to complete!
One of the first signs of anything railway was this SWR marker stone we found near Solur, which lit up our hopes that we were definitely going to see signs of railway related work nearby. (Pawan Koppa)
A deep excavation which had been flattened to lay tracks was the first signs of the line we found at Solur, the first station after Nelamangala towards Shravanabelagola. The alignment seen here is towards SBGA. The work had stopped long back which was ind
The other side of the exacavation under the RoB at Solur. This is towards the Nelamangala end. (Pawan Koppa)
The next stop was Kunigal, where land acquisition problems compunded by the long fight between the Railways and the Vijay Mallya owned Kunigal Stud Farm, through which the aligment was supposed to cut through had halted work on the outskirts of the town a
Another look at the cultivated fields where a railway line construction was supposed to be in progress! (Pawan Koppa)
Brisk pace of activities for construction of the station premises at Yediyur (Kunal.S.Doddanavar)
At first sight this looks like a rail over bridge, infact this is the Yediyur station about 100 kms from Bangalore. Work here is going on at a decent speed. (Shishir Jairam)
A surveyor deeply engrossed in calculations at ???? (Kunal.S.Doddanavar)
The platform construction is underway, We hope it wont be long before we see a train chugging in from Shravanabelagola side. (Shishir Jairam)
Yediyur station getting ready. (Shishir Jairam)
The next station enroute was Yediyur, where the railway station and its platforms were coming up on a bridge. A unique, first of its kind we thought. The platform was coming up on the left, where mud was being piled and the unfilled allignment on the righ
Another look at the works-in-progress Yediyur station. The first platform is on the left of the picture followed by the area for the first loop, mainline/second loop which was followed by the area for the island platform on which I was standing and behind
As trucks and tractors bring in earth to raise ground for the platforms, a worker overseeing the activity gives me a curious look. Yediyur. (Pawan Koppa)
As we move ahead from Yediyur towards the next stop on this line, Channarayapatna we encounter this long bridge being constructed over a lake. It was right next to the Bangalore-Mangalore highway. (Pawan Koppa)
The Girder Bridge across the waters from the Yediyur Lake. This is also right next to the Bangalore Mangalore Highway. (Shishir Jairam)
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(view all 4 comments)Great efforts team.. thanks for sharing