BENGALURU: The Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), which took up the advocacy role suggesting ways to decongest traffic in the city, will meet Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and submit letters signed by citizens demanding a suburban railway network for Bengaluru.
They will seek Mr Prabhu’s intervention to make the 'dream suburban train' a reality. As a part of 'Chuku Buku Beku' campaign started by CfB, they have already garnered 21,692 signatures as on Friday. Mr Prabhu will be in the city on January 16 to inaugurate MEMU train between Ramanagar and Whitefield.
Mr Srinivas Alavilli, founder-member of CfB, said, “A dedicated suburban train system can take 50 percent of cars and two-wheelers off the roads.”
He said, “With the city’s population swelling to 1.2 crore, which has occurred just in the last decade, we suffer every day from extreme congestion, pollution and never-ending traffic. The BDA's Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2031 states that only due to traffic jams, 600 million man hours are lost every year. Our children are paying the price and future for them looks even worse with already many suffering from health disorders like asthma.”
The demand for a suburban train in the city has been there for the past three decades, but because of lack of political will, it has not materialised, he said.
Mr Alavilli said, “We have a specific three-point demand to the railway minister – connect the top 10 key economic hubs via suburban rail to service the larger number of daily commuters, allocate budget for each of the above provisions in the next two years and work with the state government with clear time frames for commissioning these.” He requested Bengalureans to sign a petition to Mr Prabhu online by logging on to www.citizensforbengaluru.in
