Whither Suburban Rail??

CM & several MPs /MLAs have requested central govt & railways for Suburban rail for Bengaluru with cost-sharing on 50/50 basis, the budgets are out, but no Suburban Rail for Bengaluru yet, even as the budget makes substantial allocations for Mumbai & Chennai Suburban systems.

A Reality Check

• The city's population count is already 1 crore+;
• There are several fair-sized towns surrounding Bengaluru (Ramnagara, Tumkur, Doddaballapura, Chikballapura, Anekal, Malur/Bangarpete);
• Traffic chaos in Bengaluru & all highways leading out of the city have far too much traffic than they can manage (probably highest for any city in the country);
• About traffic within the city, the lesser said the better as it has broken every record in congestion delays & pedestrian safety;
• Insufficient awareness of the potential of a Suburban Rail system by citizen groups & city residents who are overly demanding road expansions;
• Authorities making half-hearted attempts in pursuing a Suburban Rail system for the city as a result & in the belief that Metro would alleviate traffic problems as it is near completion anyways.

So, what emerges out of this as conclusion to the fiasco is that citizens are squarely responsible for assuming that road augmentation will solve problems - the most recent being recommendations made to BBMP by a group of so-called experts & the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC).

The proposal seeks to connect south Bengaluru to north Bengaluru through an elevated corridor from Silk Board Junction to Hebbal (16 km), east to west Bengaluru through two elevated corridors from Goraguntepalya to K.R. Puram (21 km) and Jnana Bharathi campus to Whitefield (27 km).

Two linking corridors between the three elevated corridors are also part of the proposal.

The two linking corridors will be from Agara to Kalasipalyam, connecting the north-south corridor to the second east-west corridor that connects Jnana Bharathi campus to Whitefield, and the second linking corridor will be between Richmond Road and Ulsoor, linking the two east-west corridors.

R.K. Mishra, member of Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), BBMP, who is involved in the project, said this (project) would decongest the core city. “With a lack of connectivity between south Bengaluru and north Bengaluru, and between the eastern and western parts, commuters are forced to go through core city adding to the traffic chaos. Interlinked elevated corridors will take the pressure off the congested core city,” he added.

http://www.thehindu.com/n...

Thus, "experts" themselves are of the belief that "elevated roads" will rescue the city (sic). So, where do we go from here?