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No Commuter Rail Proposal from GOK - PMO
kbsyed61 - 25 February, 2013 | Bangalore | CRS | Bengaluru | GOK | Commuter rail | Transport | Namma Railu | Commuter rail | PMO
"No proposal was received from Government of Karnataka to start the Commuter Rail Service in Bangalore" was the reply from Prime Minister's office to a RTI query.
Often we criticize the central government for their lack of interests in infrastructure projects in Karnataka State. "Step motherly" treatment is the phrase often we hear. Here is an instance of state's disinterest in pursuing Namma Railu aka CRS project for Bengaluru.
The RTI in question had been filed to get the copies of communication between GOI and GOK regarding the GOK's proposal to start the Namma Railu Service in Bangalore. These are the questions that were asked to PMO via the RTI:
- Has Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) received any representation from Government of Karnataka for starting the Commuter/Suburban Rail Service project for Bangalore city?
- If yes, please provide a copy of the communications between Govt of Karnataka and PMO.
- If yes, what action has been taken by PMO and the current status?
- If yes, has the PMO taken up this matter with Ministry of Railways or Railway Board for their perusal?
- If yes, has the PMO received any response from other ministries and departments regarding their decision in this matter?
- Copy of all the communication between PMO and other ministries and department concerning the Commuter/Suburban Rail Service project for Bangalore city.
COMMENTS
very unfortunate!
srinidhi - 26 February, 2013 - 01:41
Govt doesnt see value with CRS or rather doesnt want to look that way cos it does not have a fancy tag like metro attached to it and doesnt cost too much!
Hope CRS makes it to the manifesto for the coming elections and it gets it due attention that way..maybe also makes it to the supplimentary budget allocation?
Btw J Shettar has already done a supplimentary budget this year..allocating 500 crores for mutts and temples looking at the coming election..just hours after the main budget presentation...we know their priorities!!
Namma Railu Mata
kamalakar pandit - 26 February, 2013 - 05:59
If Govt is keen to allocate for Mata's ...then we should rename CRS to Namma Railu Mata....atleast they will blindly allocate some 100 crs...what a pitty...no one is bothered to improve our city....as i said earier political will has to be there... we badly miss people like Mr.Modi or Mr.Chandra Babu Naidu.....who do things differently....
extensions of trains in budget
srinidhi - 26 February, 2013 - 09:01
Here is a list of new trains and extensions in the budget..
Many (4) trains are extended to Mysore and one of them is a daily..is this a way to say the tracks are occupied for CRS?
With Great difficulty i found
kamalakar pandit - 26 February, 2013 - 09:16
With Great difficulty i found Bangalore name in Railway Budget....
Other party people also could
abidpqa - 26 February, 2013 - 11:04
Other party people also could have send proposals not just ruling party, Now, it seems no party is interested, maybe Praja needs to put up some candidates. Aswin Mahesh gives some hope
Something doesnt add
raghunandan85 - 26 February, 2013 - 14:39
Something doesnt add up.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/budget/karnataka-gets-three-new-lines-8-new-express-trains-113022600363_1.html
" However, the minister has once again neglected the state’s demand for a commuter rail system for Bangalore."
Many (4) trains are extended to Mysore
Tejaswi KR - 26 February, 2013 - 22:17
Mr Srinidhi, I too feel the same. I don't know why so many trains are being extended to Mysore nowadays. I believe the GOK has already transferred the Binny Mills land to the railways; hopefully the new government would do something about the commuter rail service, that the city desperately needs once the new terminus is in place. Well one needs to examine the urgency of the railways to take up work on the new station at Bangalore City, considering that Byappanahalli terminus has been spoken of since the past 6 years......
I wonder how the government thinks that CRS is unncecessary when the metro network is being put in place. Metro is largely for the intra-city travel, while the CRS is for the inter-city travel within the metropolitan area. Their roles are entirely different and so is the population they cater to.
State has to take the blame
idontspam - 27 February, 2013 - 02:45
State has to take the blame for not getting what it wants, shows they didnt want it badly enough.
wouldnt lobbying help?
srinidhi - 27 February, 2013 - 06:09
Had heard Chandra Babu Naidu would camp endlessly in New Delhi those days to get what he wants for his state..this is more so important because we dont have the same ruling party in the centre..
I havent heard of any such actions from the govt here..all they are involved is in pulling each others legs and breaking up forming parties..
DNA Covering on commuter Rail not sanctioned
Sanjeev - 27 February, 2013 - 20:39
Industry Thoughts by BCIC
State demand for Commuter Rail System for Bangalore has been neglected.
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=2&edcode=860009&eddate=2013-02-27
Their are Tracks but no will. by Pranav
http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=3&edcode=860009&eddate=2013-02-27
Good that Pranav for ensuring the Commuter Rail is made noise in news paper once again.
TOI also covering Commuter Rail not sanctioned
Sanjeev - 27 February, 2013 - 21:15
The major disappointment is that the states demand for a commuter rail system for Bangalore (suburban rail service) has not been considered though state has agreed to fund 50% of the project cost.Other major proposals ignored are the Bangalore-Mysore and Bangalore-Tumkur rail corridors with the doubling,electrification and automatic signalling not getting the green signal.
Thanks to TOI for covering this aspect.
We should thank all major news papers : DNA, TOI, Decchan Chronicle covering Commuter Rail not sanctioned.
Should use elections for getting commuter rail
Vasanth - 28 February, 2013 - 10:24
For the upcoming state elections, most of the parties are coming with agendas. Mr. Kumaraswamy has said 3 kms sky walk around Majestic area. He also contests from Ramanagaram which needs commuter rail. During his tenure, he ensured doubling upto Ramanagaram is done quickly.
If some parties comes with Commuter Rail as their agenda, others will follow suit and final beneficiary is the citizens.
Outdated concept of centralized railway budget
silkboard - 28 February, 2013 - 17:21
There are tracks, but no will. Why on earth would Railways not consider a DEMU/MEMU based commuter rail service to help de-congest Bengaluru despite well researched need and long pending requests from citizens and local representatives? Imagine if you had to go seek permission of a ministry in New Delhi to get a Bus Service started between Mysore and Mandya - how would you feel? What is so special about rails that there is still a heavily centralized ministry with arbitrary divisions that neither have clear alignment with states, nor the authority to present their own separate budgets and plans? Indian Railways is behind times because of this centralized approach. And cities like Bengaluru will pay the price by being forced to spend on 10 times as expensive mass transit options.
@vasanth, Onus is on us!
kbsyed61 - 28 February, 2013 - 17:29
Vasanth,
What you suggest is the right prescription to get our political class some interest in mass transit systems, if nothing else some gyan.
To get it into the manifestos, the onus will be on us to reach out to the parties, candidates and push them recognize the importance of CRS.
That could be one project we at Praja should take up. I am game for this.
-Syed
@Syed, first step taken
Vasanth - 1 March, 2013 - 17:40
Syed Sir, Shanthala Damle is contesting from Basavanagudi for Lokasatta Party, same party for which Dr. Ashwin Mahesh is contesting.
I sent an FB message to her. One of my colleague is promoting her party looking at the different way they are functioning. I will also pass on this message to him to take up this as an agenda.
Standard letter!
kbsyed61 - 1 March, 2013 - 22:39
Vasanth,
Thanks for the first step and my suggestion would be to not restrict the awareness campaign to one or 2 party. Contact all the parties and local candidates from the respective constituency. That's the way to take democracy a step further - Participative.
Here are couple of brochures that should come handy for conatcting the politicians.
Namma Railu Brochure - Promise fo Growth Beyond Bengaluru
Namma Railu - FAQs
@Praja-RAAG,
It would be good idea to use a standard letter demanding CRS. Let's draft a standard letter addressed to Party/Candidates demanding their support for implementation of CRS and inclusion into their party manifesto that members and others can make use of it.
-Syed
Availability of tracks not limit
abidpqa - 2 March, 2013 - 11:47
We dnot have limit the demand for CRS by the availability of tracks. If tracks are not available, we can upgrade demand for CRS plus new tracks, as in jump directly to phase II of report.
New trains are as important as CRS. The two new trains between Bangalore and Mysore (16535/6, 16592/1) stil run in the opposite direction of demand wrt to local travel, ie. the daily trains reach Bangalore in the evening. Theyare not convenient for office or other commercial activities. But the extension reduces idling space needed in Bangalore city stations, which is quite good.
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