Citizen's group seeks suburban rail on existing tracks

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: A petition to start Bengaluru suburban rail at the earliest with the existing infra has been initiated on change.org by Bengaluru Mobility, a citizens' movement for sustainable, multimodal, integrated mobility in the city. The petition has so far received more than 2,800 signatures.

“Bengaluru's sleeping asset, a century-old rail network that passes through almost 75 percent of its geography has not been utilised to provide a suburban rail network which could easily address more than half commute requirements. This is due to lack of integrated planning, lack of awareness, and lack of political will,” the petition states.

It further noted that cities like Hyderabad and Nagpur have done the same through interventions like intelligent signalling and control rooms, without making an announcement of a dedicated suburban rail project. The petition has sought the establishment of seven corridors on existing lines which will play a role as the backbone transport for Bengaluru and the neighbouring districts.

For example, the Mandya – Bangarpet 1 line (via Majestic, Cantonment, Byappanahalli, KR Puram, Whitefield). It calls for authorities to make the schedule frequent and in turn dependable by introducing at least one local train every 15 minutes during the peak hours and 30 minutes during the nonpeak hours.

The petition has also provided details on minor technological changes such as automatic signalling and a dedicated control room that can be made in order to modernise the existing infrastructure. It speaks of cross-over points and doubling on all sections. It also advocates for upgrading all railway stations and providing proper access to commuters with an efficient multi-modal connection.

“The government has announced a grand Rs 23,000 crore project for Bengaluru. But that project is based on the creation of new infrastructure, and hence it will take anywhere between 7-10 years for it to materialise. That is if it ever does because it is caught in bureaucracy again and fund allocations are hard to come by,” the petition says.

“In Mumbai, the railways run a train every three minutes on every line, but at the same time, in Bengaluru, in most corridors, there might be just one train in 3 hours or more,” it explains. Their demand is to set up a task force to implement this within a three-month period and support it with the necessary funds and other requirements.