idontspam - 13 July, 2010 | Transportation | public transport | Commuter rail

Here is an overview of the Praja Report on CRS, titled "Namma Railu".

Decongestion of Bengaluru is a burning issue facing the administrators today. With the kind of visibility Bengaluru has in the international arena and the role India is going to play in the world of the future, it is important for both central and state governments to sit up and take notice. Ignoring the long term mass transport needs of the city can backfire on the country. The economy of any city thrives on availability of good quality labor at affordable cost. Expensive housing and increased travel times only put more pressure on productivity of human capital. This may ultimately lead to flight of capital and hurt the economy with cascading effect.

Housing has already become unaffordable in Bengaluru for the lower and middle classes which is going to form a major portion of the workforce of the future. Also, a 76% decline in vegetation cover and 79% decline in water bodies due to the increase in built up space in the urban areas of Bengaluru means, brownfield growth centers at approximately one hours commute from Bengaluru needs to be developed. No amount of connectivity within the city will be successful if that connectivity is not supplemented by mass transit to these growth centers. The key is frequent, low cost connectivity which can be achieved by utilizing and enhancing the existing train tracks between Bengaluru and these growth centers.  Multiple reports over 27 years including RITES surveys have confirmed this fact.

This Commuter Rail Service for Bengaluru will require the following

1. Setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle between representative entities of the Indian Railways and the Government or Karnataka
2. Introduce new trains on new routes and increase the frequency on all routes
3. Increase capacity of tracks and implement state of the art signaling systems
4. Build new stations with good quality infrastructure and improve accessibility to existing stations with last mile connectivity
5. Create multimodal hubs and interchanges to allow people to change to other modes of transport

The benefits of the Commuter Rail Service is multifold

1. With 6 Routes connecting 6 growth centers at a frequency of 24 trains per day per route, 375 kilometers and 50 lakh people can be covered
2. Availability of labour for growth of the already established economic ecosystem
3. Decongestion of the city
4. Increased efficiency in commute times
5. Affordable housing for lower & middle classes
6. Significantly lower capital expenditure on transport infrastructure

The Call to Action report prepared by Praja.in provides a citizens perspective of a quickly implementable, viable alternative. The report lays out the need and urgency of running full fledged dedicated commuter trains under a dedicated SPV set up for this purpose.

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