HOT TOPICS
SPOTLIGHT AGENCIES
Railways - a major letdown for Karnataka
Written By nijavaada - 14 February, 2009
Infrastructure Bangalore Infrastructure India railways SWR Karnataka Analysis GOI Mobilicity
In continuation with some threads on transportation, highways, and the unjust treatment Karnataka (including Bengaluru) has been facing from the Center, here're some fresh wounds the Railway ministry has made on Karnataka.
The 2009-10 interim Railway budget is out, and as expected, has been a disaster for us (Karnataka).
There hve always been huge piles of requests sent to Railway ministers in the past, like this time too, but the outcome of every budget has been a pittance in front of them. Why, look at this time's budget:
1. There were demands for 10 new inter-city rails in Karnataka.
2. What have we got - Zilch!
3. There were 5 tracks within Karnataka that were demanded to be made non-stop for special convenience of long distance traverlers..
4. What we got - Zilch!
5. And so on..
This has been the trend of unequal treatment Karnataka has been facing at the Center. All the plans we might have for Bengaluru, its industrial growth, its governance, its security, its economy, its satellite-town-plan, and all that will spontaneously plummet to earth if we have such an un-federal system in place, where all that we get from the center is a new, and longer inter-state train to Bengaluru, only to help more people come into the state, but nothing to strengthen the industrial corridor we dream to build between Bengaluru and the many other potentially industrial towns across the state. Come to think of it, is a Bengaluru-Mangalore high-speed rail link more useful to BLR/KAR, or a BLR-Chennai rail link? Besides, 3 or 4 intra-state trains have been allocated to TN in this budget, but none to Karnataka!
And guess what: with all this noise happening out there, excepting the Kannada media doing voluntary investigations and telling people about this matter, no damn soul on the English media quarters (the ones that go full volume when it comes to talking about pubs, parties, valentines and etc. stuff) seems to be even bothered about this to more than publishing a couple of lines in a corner. Are we not unduly relying on some media that actually doesnt care, at heart, for what's good for this city? For what's needed to make a better Bengaluru, a better Karnataka? Its time we as Praje work towards influencing the English media to stop imagining themselves as representatives of a different planet, and come back to earth and stand for the cause of Karnataka.
As responsible Praje, we need to exibhit more sensibility than getting influenced by media that care the least for real development of our land. We urgently need to keep our eyes wide open to things around us. Even while not ignoring the rotten present that we're standing amidst, we MUST realise ways to create a glorious future..
-Nijavaada
COMMENTS
nijavaada - 19 February, 2009 - 13:22
A good job indeed with the map there.. but can you also let us know the time-stamp of this map? And a corresponding map of Bihar and TN with the same time-stamp could help place our argument in context.
Your analysis is of course a perfect fit into the puzzle here, but a comparison is the other piece that completes it - hence we need to have those additional maps as well.
-Nijavaada
silkboard - 14 February, 2009 - 07:01
Instead of going into the grouse for the moment (which will be a tactical thing to do, and we will get lost in arguments), how about we analyze the budget preparation process:
- Does Railway work in any decentralized manner?
- Why do South Western Railway, souther Railway etc not present their separate budgets?
- Is there a split of work-subject between the central entity called Indian Railways and the regional parts of railways?
- In other words, how federal is the structure of Railways?
- If I want something for my region (region always != state), who do I have to go and influence, regional railway entity, or only Delhi?
- How well aligned with the federal structure (Gok and states), is the budgeting and planning process of Railways?
I am sure there is some process for planning - and it may very well be market driven (more people, more expected traffic demand, moe trains). But we should ask for and understand how democratic or participative is the planning and budgeting processrailways? Who will have the answers?
It could be that fixing this will take care of things for once and for all.
I would suspect that our state's MPs have the responsibility to canvass for our states (I am told thats how Indian Railways work), and they may be failing us on this count.
[Please refrain from unnecessary name calling and attacks, no wars and foul language etc, please]
nijavaada - 19 February, 2009 - 13:16
Let us be structured and realistic in our approach, so that we stand a better chance of getting what we need
But actually your words dont seem to be indicative of any such stand. Your stats only seem to paint of a rosy picture of Rlys in KAR - which is utterly untrue. Firstly, the macro level statistics - of the railway length inside KAR, and in comparison with other states' corresponding numbers tells a sad story by itself. There could be tens of other angles to analyse these data from, but they cannot lead to an entirely different inference.
The important thing is not when these lines were built, but the fact that they are here now
But the more important parameter that comes out of this analysis is the demand-supply gap, in terms of the time projects are taking to be agreed-upon and laid in KAR as opposed to many other states.
Electrification should only be done on double lines with high traffic
Unfortunately the chicken-egg situation that this is pointing at is that KAR might not get more electric lines unless we have more double-track percentage in the state. The doubling wont happen until there's a matching traffic demand. And apparently, the demand wont go up as long as we dont have trains running on routes that are indeed necessary. But this leads us to ask basic questions - why then does the Rly department see more demand in other states, and not in KAR? Why doesnt the dept. want to infuse the need to travel by rail in more people by making railways more attractive an option - like it has done in many other states? Doesnt the Rly dept. want to run a "business" in KAR?? While there is certainly a lot of demand (see links I posted above) there seems to be no match from the supply side.
And you seem to be an SME on the railways front or something - but its sad that you dont think electrification of tracks is beneficial indeed. It certainly adds more power, and hence more capacity, and hence reduced burden per route/run.
And now, talking about perspectives.. I think there is a serious gap visible here, typical of some urban satisfied souls. There are people who face this bitter railway reality in our state everyday, and there are people that spend a whole lot more (money and time) to travel the same distances that is far conveniently traveled by people in other states. People of Karnataka who have been living it up with the bad Rly situation here know best the magnitude of this crap we have in our state.
Although asking for the moon seems to be far from what you're proposing here, it is sad that you still believe daisy-chaining cities on railway tracks is still enough for a fast-growing state like KAR. And FYI, daisy chaining is close to what you've suggested about the Kodagu connection with MYS, BLR, HUB and other cities in that sequential order. Instead, we need to ask for a star-connection involving individual connections between every significant city-couple in the state as in - KOD-BLR, KOD-MYS, KOD-MLR, KOD-BEL, KOD-BID etc. If you think thats too much, then you're suppressing your expectations, and needs too.
Coming to the juvenile remark in your post, let me clarify that this is a federal union of states - into which each state agreed to merge (when the republic was formed) upon the condition that the new union would give better living conditions in all ways than by being alone. While the center takes a lot away from the state for the cause of the nation as a whole (the gold that KAR generates, the Iron ore that KAR generates, the sandalwood that KAR generates, the s/w that KAR generates etc. etc.) it is highly warranted to at-least expect on-par treatment with other states. In fact a look at the stats given on this thread, on-par is far from reality. And how can you be sure that there is a shortage of need (demand) in our state - which is why we dont have the supply? Your argument in this direction is full of pitfalls. Besides, with an eye for progress and a glorious state that we want to build (assuming you're part of that too), the kind of complacent attitude displayed in your comment is not the stuff that can help us reach there!
BTW, so what if MLR-KOD is tough because of ghats? Didnt the Konkan railway not pass through the same western ghats? And what do you know about the kind of problems eastern ghats poses - and what are the railways laid out there? Please look into your data bank in this regard and re-think..
-Nijavaada
PRAJA.IN COMMENT GUIDELINES
Posting Guidelines apply for comments as well. No foul language, hate mongering or personal attacks. If criticizing third person or an authority, you must be fact based, as constructive as possible, and use gentle words. Avoid going off-topic no matter how nice your comment is. Moderators reserve the right to either edit or simply delete comments that don't meet these guidelines. If you are nice enough to realize you violated the guidelines, please save Moderators some time by editing and fixing yourself. Thanks!