Bengaluru: Gauribidanur rail passengers, angry over the cancellation of KSR Bengaluru City-Hindupur Memu services, blocked the Bagalkot-Mysuru Basava Express on Monday morning. The train was delayed by 55 minutes because of the protest. South Western Railway officials said only Basava Express was delayed between 7.50am to 8.45am at Gauribidanur.
Nirmal Kumar, who was on the Basava Express from Mantralayam Road to Yeshwantpur, said: “Around 200 people blocked the train. Most of them were daily-wage workers travelling from Gauribidanur to Yelahanka or Majestic. But SWR has now cancelled their Memu services and are also not allowing them to travel in unreserved coaches on other trains. Passengers had already given a petition to the SWR officials on this issue 20 days ago, but there was no response from them. This has led to the protest.”SWR chief public relations officer Aneesh Hegde said: “There were two Memu services which were temporarily cancelled in connection with yard works at Devarapalli and Hindupur.” Hegde said they are examining augmenting of general/unreserved coaches on the trains running in the section to avoid inconvenience until the yard work at Hindupur is completed.”
