It would be interesting to see the list of questions pertaining to Railways were asked by MPs from Karnataka. That would tell how much our representatives were concerned with railway network in our state.

Bangalore needs a bigger railway station like the international airport outside the city. The connectivity to most major cities in South India is not sufficient ( that is where I travel). The direct trains are less; if we try to take connecting trains, the trains for the destination leave at least 2 hours before your train reach. The railway line between Bangalore and Coimbatore through Dharmapuri is single line and nonelectrified. The trains to Chennai is also too less. There should be at least twice the number of trains. Railways does not analyse the traffic and work to meet the needs of the people, I think they see only booking statistics, they do not do any market surveys I believe.

State goverments wants roads because most of the construction is under their control, and railways does not invest enough or promote itself. People are also not interested in trains generally. I think people should travel distances more than100 km in train and demand more trains. Because most of the other mode of transport are privatised, they try to lobby against development of railways, which they see as a threat to their returns.

We had earlier discussed about the EDGE stations, i.e. Satellite Stations at the tip of the city for example Nayandahalli at Mysore Line, Whitefield / Byappanahalli at Chennai Line, Yeshwantpur for Tumkur Line and Yelahanka/Byappanahalli for Guntkal Line. We need to have a circular line connecting the EDGE stations from where the intercity trains and Goods Trains passing Bangalore such as Mysore-Tumkur via the circular line.

We need to utilize the existing lines within the city for local trains which will reduce the travel time say from Kengeri to Whitefield say 50 minutes compared to 2 hours by road during peak hours.

These EDGE stations can be built hi-tech because of cheaper land availabilitity compared to Bangalore City Station.

There will be lots of opposition for this, but will keep our SBC station less busy, provide local trains to Bangalore without waiting for the Metro to serve the intracity travel faster to some extent.

I have listed out some important priorities for karnataka in the railway budget.

1.Immediate priority for indian railways should be doubling of Tumkur - Hubli with electrification between Bangalore and Hubli .Already traffic moves at a snails pace and this is the major lifeline between North and South Karnataka.Momentum is the key towards growth of our state.

2.Completion of Hassan -Bangalore new line(Already work has been completed between hassan and shravanabelagola and work has also been completed between bangalore and Nelamnagala.The remaining portion of the work needs to be completed on priority in order to facilitate connectivity to three key  districts of karnatka(Hassan,Udupi and Dakshina Kannada).

3.Talguppa -Honnavar New Line-Early completion after environment clearance as this line would aid connectivity to the central Karnataka and Coastal Districts.

Doubling of Tumkur - Hubli(400 km) will take more time and needs lot of expenditure. Only Arsikere-Birur(45 km)doubling  is under progress. Instead SWR can think of a shorter route and this is via Tumkur, Sira, Hiriyur, Chitradurga, Davangere. Tumkur-Chitradurga-Davangere(200 km) will reduce the distance between Bangalore-Hubli by 65 kms.

MoS K H Muniyappa has assured funds for Tumkur-Chitradurga new Line in the next railway Budget.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/10096/funds-assured-chitradurga-tumkur-bge.html

Considering the frieght load in the region,Electrification is a complete necessity and the additional new line will supplement growth of new traffic.Lets have the dedicated corridor  passing through karnataka.From Bangalore to Londa.

It would be nice if we could have more inputs on north karnataka especially as it comes under the jurisdiction of SCR,Secunderabad.

Doubling of Konkan Railway should also be a priority,as current traffic moves at a snails pace in the section and terminal facilities are improved to faciltaiate the introduction of the Bangalore-Karwar Night Train(This is in addition to the kannur train proposed)

All these years shortage of  capacity on the trunk route between hubli and bangalore was quoted as an impediment to introduce new trains in karnataka.We need one main line which passes through the heart of karnataka.It would definetely aid future development of railways in the state.

One more night train to hubli,Day train to davanagere are necessities which the railway minister needs to address. 

As railway Budget is going to be presented during last week of Feb, few more weeks left,   now Union Minister for Law & Justice Mr Veerappa Moily has submitted the memorandum to Railway Minister to introduce folloing new trains  : Bijapur-Mangalore via Gadag-Arasikere-Hassan-Sakleshpur route, Solapur-Mangalore (with AC coaches), Bangalore-Goa via Mangalore-Udupi-Karwar, Mumbai Chatrpati Shivaji Terminus-Mangalore through the Konkan Railway Sector, and a daily train between Bangalore and Nelamangala.   Five railway stations in the State be included for model railway station project of the Union Government  : Yalahanka, Devanahalli,  Chikkaballapura , Gowribidanur and Doddaballapura station.

As the remaining trains announced during budget 2009  for Karnataka still not yet started : Bangalore to Nizamudin Rajdhani weekly 3 days via Kachiguda, & other trains.

Priority need to be provided  for Track doubling with Electrification from Bangalore to other parts of Karnataka.

All our MP's & MLA's need to raise the level with Minister and Specially  Ministers from Karnataka should put pressure on Railway Minster to get the required projects & Trains for Karnataka this time. 

Similarly  Mr Kharge should ask for Train between Raichur to Mangalore,  Raichure to Hubli,  Chikaballapur to Chamraj Nagar, Bangalore to Jammu,  Mangalor to Tirupthi, Super Fast train Bangalore to Mumbai via Hubli, Daily Train from Yesvanthpur  to Vasco, GolGumbaz Express, Yesvanthpur to Managlore day train to be made daily.

Other Ministers : Mr Krishan should picth in for CRS for Bangalore city. Hardly  seen demanding anything for Karnataka???

Hipe this time We Karnataka get the good share in railway budget.

The biggest priority for Karnataka should be the announcement of Mangalore and Gulbarga as two new didvisions  part of the south western railway.The north karnataka and south karnataka will always be devoid of any development until these are not part of south western railway.

I am glad that PRAJA's hard work on Railways in Karnataka has been taken notice. Happened to go through the IDD report on Railways in Karnataka has brought out and very surprised to notice that our works has been taken verbatim. Pls look at Page # 21

"Table 10: District-wise Rail Connectivity Metrics ........................................................ 21" in

http://www.idd.kar.nic.in/docs/Rail_Infra_Plan_Dec_09.pdf

Wish people do give credit to original works. In any case I take the solace that our work on PRAJA didn't go unnoticed.

For the original spreadsheet look at @ http://praja.in/en/gyan/district-todistrict-train-connectivity-matrix

Syed

It is a very good document with lots of info, 89 pages. It has comparisons between Karnataka and neighboring states, districtwise breakup etc. It would be nice we could store it in praja.in itself and can be used in future discussions etc.

Syed - if that is true, glad to see that our analysis gets noticed.

There is such a shortage of quality (whether full baked or not) analysis on the Internet that those who spend the time to write some qill get noticed. Our goal at Praja should be to flood Internet with almost-there quality original content and analysis.