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Written By silkboard - 28 September, 2008

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Mukund SWR questionsMr. N. Mukund who represents the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce on the Divisional Railway Users’ Consultative Committee, recently got some questions answered by the Railway Officials. Click on the image on right to see Railway's replies to his questions. Here is a quick recap of some of those, see the one on commuter rail (suburban connectivity comes under ... state government!)

  • Q: Provision of ROB/RUB at many crossings which have become bottlenecks. Ex: Alalsandra Gate at Yelahanka.
    • A: Allalsandra gate work is sanctioned and will be taken up.
  • Q: Provide Train Service to BIA, Doddajala station is so close to the airport!
    • A: Railways are already running passenger trains between Bangalore and Chikkaballapur. Subject of Suburban trains pertain to State Government as suburban connectivity comes under the purview of infrastructure development of state government.
  • Q: Stations other than Cantonment, City and Yesvantpur need more security measures, Yelahanka Junction is not maintained well
    • A: City, Cantonment and Yesvantpur have been identified as potential places for security threats.SBC/YPR have metal detectors and cameras. Same are on their way at Cantt station

Didn't see any question around amenities at City station, but hope Praja members will ask those when they manage to meet South Western Railway. I am looking forward to that meeting.

COMMENTS

State running commuter service !

kbsyed61 - 28 September, 2008 - 16:49

Seems railways' have maintained a consistent line of argument that "Subject of Suburban trains pertain to State Government...",. Now the question is will Indian Railways would permit State government to plan and run the sub-urban railway service using its resources (lines, stations etc)?

M N Srihari said the same

silkboard - 28 September, 2008 - 17:15

Incidentally, based on what I have been 'hearing', it seems railways are willing but the state government is not keen on putting more efforts to make Commuter Rail Service a reality. I ran into M N Srihari last week, and asked him a lot about CRS. He sort of suggested the same - have to make state government move on CRS, and not Railways.

I had, and still have the opposite picture in mind - that railways may not be too keen as CRS may not look too profitable to them.

The reality may be something in between. It needs state and Railways to work together. Knowing that this "coordination" is hard work, neither party is taking any pro-active steps. Just my gut feel, thats all.

Just think about it, from SWR's language, it looks like CRS will have to be a service planned and operated by city/state government but on South Western Railway's assets. How the hell will that happen? a join venture - Bangalore Railway Corporation? A new business for Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation? Or yet another PPP where SWR provides non-cash support (its lines and stations), state provides cash, and private party brings design and operational expertise?

KR Puram railway station bottleneck

mcadambi - 28 September, 2008 - 18:06

Finally, the NHAI took the responsibility of redesigning the Beniganahalli RUB. I hope SWR can co-ordinate with NHAI, BBMP to redesign the KR Puram railway station so that traffic can move smoothly on towards ITPL and other areas.

Public-Public-Partnership

mcadambi - 28 September, 2008 - 19:48

In the BMLTA summit, the idea of how important it is for Government bodies to work together in "Public Public Partnership" (PPP) was highlighted. I find it so hard to believe that GoK cannot interact with GoI to kick start the CRS / Suburban rail service. Perhaps the answer to GoK's lethargy lies in the fact that massive capital is being poured into projects such as namma metro, mono and the scope for bribes is so wide in the latter. It's so easy to milk a cow but so difficult to get a horse to go in the right direction. For GoK, horse racing seems to be a bigger priority! ;-)

Railways not interested in commuter trains on their tracks

Devesh - 29 September, 2008 - 12:57

The Bangalore Chamber had proposed for SWR to start two trains between Hosur and Bidadi from each station every morning 7:00am reaching the destination station by 9:30am, and a similar return service in the evening from 6pm to 8:30pm. They have refused citing lack of track capacity and a desire to only promote long distance trains.

We have also asked for a morning fast no-stop train between Bangalore and Mysore, returning from Mysore in the evening. But the whole thing is mired in the track doubling and we know the Tipu armory issue is delaying things. I would not hold my breath for the solution is 4+ years away.

Right now, we have Tipu Express which takes 2.5 hours but leaves at 2:15pm and arrive 4:45pm.Chamundi leaves at 6:15pm stops at all stations on the way and arrives 3 hours later at 9:10pm. The rest of the track is occupied with long distance trains which does not make sense to me.

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Regards

Devesh R. Agarwal

Visit my aviation blog at http://aviation.deveshagarwal.com

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