South Western Railways today flagged off the inaugural run of the 06521 Yeshwantpur – Hazrat Nizamuddin express which marks the first run of an express train on the Yelahanka – Chikballapur – Kolar – Bangarapet section after its convertion to Broad guage a few years back.
The line to Kolar was abandoned more than a decade back after the closure of the Kolar Gold mines and subsequent fall in traffic.
Kolar would also see a new line come up from Srinivasapura to Kadapa via Madanapalle, thereby reducing the distance to places like Tirupati by quite some.
The train also revives memories of the Karnataka – Kerala express of the good old days which followed the same route between Nizamuddin and Jolarpettai, where the Karnataka portion to Bengaluru and Kerala portion used to separate / amalgamate.
06521 Timings:
Small correction in the wording from same to similar route between JTJ-NZM. Back then KPD-TPTY was MG and trains use to take the AJJ bypass to RU instead from KPD
While the distance shows it runs via TPTY, I’m not sure it would. I’m still guessing it would take the AJJ bypass route since there is no halt at TPTY.
Excellent initiative. The Yelahanka – Chikballapur – Kolar – Bangarpet section getting an express train !! Kudos SWR