Commuter Rail: Centre, state on parallel tracks

Even as Bangaloreans continue to battle traffic on the roads every day, the government seems in no hurry to build a commuter rail system that promises easy connectivity to its suburbs and nearby towns at very little cost.

Its inertia is as always costing people, who are still waiting for a Metro Rail that has been years in the making. When will the railways and the state wake up and do the needful? Amit S. Upadhye and Sangeeta Bora report.

hile the city still awaits a fully operational Metro Rail, it hasn’t had much luck with the Commuter Rail System (CRS) proposed for it either as not much headway has been made on the 2012 report of the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES) on the project.

The state government, however, seems to be now pushing for the CRS as the Metro still seems years away from completion, to take the pressure off the roads and allow Bangaloreans to commute in ease from the city to not too distant destinations like Whitefield, Tumkur and Ramnagara, with stopovers at surburbs like Yelahanka and Kengeri.

The government which first submitted the proposal for a CRS to the Railway Board in February last year, and gave another detailed plan complete with the cost and infrastructure required on October 28 to it, is still awaiting a response from the Union railway minister.

Says Pranav Jha of the Research Analysis and Advocacy Group (Raag), which has been long advocating a commuter rail system for the city, “The state government was supposed to submit the proposal to the Union government and we believe it has done so now. The Directorate of Urban Land Transport Development (DULT), the state agency responsible for the project has shown us the letter of submission.”

Jha is however unhappy that although DULT was supposed to constitute an agency on the lines of the BMRCL called the Bangalore Suburban Rail Corporation Limited to run the service, it has still not done so.

“We need a separate entity to run the commuter rail system as this project will require new stations, bus stands and so on. But it has still not been constituted,” he regrets.

Sanjeev V. Dyamannavar, a member of Raag, says the CRS will benefit both people of the city and the railways.

“If all its three phases become active over 430 kms in all directions, about 25 lakh passengers will be able to travel on these trains every day. The service will bring commuters to the city in 40 to 90 minutes, thus saving time as well,” he adds.

While the existing tracks can be used for the project, Dyamannavar says, 58% of the total investment of Rs 9000 crore will go towards upgrading railway infrastructure and for doubling  the tracks, which in turn will help the Indian Railways  run more intercity and goods trains. “Besides, capacity of the trains can be increased depending on the demand,” he points out.

With the new service likely to touch Bangalore City station, Yelahanka, Byappanahalli and Yeshwantpur and connect the city to peripheral areas like Ramanagara, Tumkur, Bangarpet, Chikballapur, Hosur, Devanahalli and Whitefield, the project will require land acquisition, notes IIM-B professor Rajeev Gowda.

“The good thing is that a lot of support is coming in from the local MLAs. We need to understand that this is a big project and will take time,” he adds.

Scientific planning of CRS can solve Bangalore's traffic troubles

K.V. Acharya, a retired physics professor

Having a local train service for the city was first proposed many years ago. The train service of Mumbai was seen as a model, but we didn’t opt for it.

So traffic congestion escalated in the city. Now we are talking about a commuter rail.

But if we delay its implementation as well we will be letting go of yet another opportunity to solve our traffic troubles.

I believe there is a lot of scope for launching a local rail network service touching nearby towns like Ramanagar, Hassan, Mandya, and Channapatna. Kengeri, K.R. Puram, Yelahanka  are the other places that can be connected with the Majestic railway station easily.

If we provide fast and regular service to and from these places, we will be able to decongest Bangalore and also save on travel time and curb pollution. The lakhs of commuters who travel by road
combating traffic gridlocks every day in the city stand to benefit greatly.

Also as the city has several railway stations that are well–connected, laying a track on land already available with the railways will be much cheaper than building the Metro Rail. But what we need is scientific planning of the project.

Only recently when South Western Railway launched a train service between Bangalore city and Nelamangala, the timings were very uncomfortable for the general public. Such aspects clearly need to be taken care of better when planning a new commuter rail system for the city.

Next: Lack of political will causing delay

Lack of political will causing delay

A commuter rail service  for the city may have received  the sanction of the last BJP government and the current Congress administration, but those who have been long advocating it for the city complain neither government has shown any urgency in making it a reality.

R.K. Misra, a civic expert who has been involved with the project for 10 years now , blames lack of political will for the delay in its implementation.

“Although the railway minister is  from Karnataka, the project has still not taken off. The Chief Minister could fast forward it if he wanted to, but he doesn’t seem interested,” he regrets.

Traffic expert, M.N. Sreehari, who thinks CRS could be one of the most effective modes of transport for Bangalore as it will take 40 per cent of the traffic off the roads, too believes the transport minister and the Chief Minister need to bring more pressure on the railways to make it a reality.

“There are five railway lines passing through Bangalore city and most importantly they run parallel to the main roads. In the past the BMRCL and the state government didn’t  fully support the project, but now things have changed and its time to go full steam ahead with it,” he says. 

H.S. Sudhira, CEO of Gubbi Labs,  feels the challenge will be to get everyone to sit around the table to discuss the project and give it the push it needs.

“This calls for political will,” he stresses, pointing out that with the city’s roads growing increasingly burdened by traffic, it’s important to come up with an alternative mode of transport that will take the load of them in the long run. "But for this project to get going multiple issues need to be considered, like who will pay for what. Most importantly, the South Western Railway has to be taken into confidence,” he says.