MYSURU: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced the launch of the 6,400 crore six-lane Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway, aimed at cutting down travel time between the two cities, as well as a satellite railway station at Naganahalli on the outskirts of Mysuru to help operate additional trains.The expressway will be taken up from both Mysuru and Bengaluru, the PM said. Work has been split into two stages - Bengaluru and Nidaghatta (on the border of Maddur and Channapatna) and Nidaghatta and Mysuru.The announcement came at a BJP rally after the launch of two railway projects in the city - electrification of the Bengaluru-Mysuru rail line and flagging off of the Humsafar Express connecting Mysuru to Udaipur, Rajasthan . The new weekly Humsafar Expresswill connect important heritage palaces in and around Mysuru, Bengaluru, Davanagere, Hubballi, Belagavi, Pune, Kalyan, Surat, Vadodara, Ratlam, Chittaurgarh, Udaipur and pass through five states - Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.The Naganahalli facility will be a world-class multi-storeyed building which will help the railways break free from the landlocked Mysuru station and operate additional trains on the busy route, he explained. As of now, 76 trains operate between the two cities but there is need for more which cannot be accommodated as the Mysuru railway station doesn't have land to build new platforms, he said. The Centre will invest 800 crore for the facility.Modi linked the flagging off of the Humsafar Express to promotion of tourism as both cities are tourist hubs. Tourism helps people from all walks of life to improve their standard of living, from auto and taxi drivers to hoteliers, he stated.With the launch of the electric track, the travel time between Mysuru and Bengaluru will come down by a few minutes but it will save expenditure for railways and be more eco-friendly.

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