Many thanks to all those who signed the petition and supported the latest campaign demanding Suburban Rail Service. With help coming from as far as United Sates, Australia, Europe, Singapore and Middle East, the petition got about 2300+ on-line signatures and 3000+ hard copy signatures.
Yesterday, in the morning around 9 AM, the Namma Railu supporters met the new railway minister, Shri. Sadananda Gowda at his residence in Bengaluru and submitted the signed petition with 5000+ signatures. They all requested the railway minister to put his seal of approval on this project and set the ball rolling for its speedy implementation.
The group consisted of Mr. Sanjeev, Hemanth of Praja-RAAG, Prof Rajeev Gowda, Ramprasad, from Bengaluru Needs You!, Raghotam Rao, representatives from Tumkur Prayanikare Vedike and Vikram Bichal from Prestige Shantiniketan Apartment Owner Association, Whitefield. It was a great show of all round support for the project.
The railway minister Shri. Sadananda Gowda has promised to include this in the upcoming railway budget. Let us hope and pray that he measures up to the promise.
Forward this Project Blog
Comments
Petition submitted to Rail Minister.
Congrats to Praja on successful petition campaign. A photo of petition submission may pl be uploaded onto change.org to inform all those petitioners the progress made
Update posted on Change.org
devdas jeppu,
The update has been posted on chage.org.
Rail budget
Following Rail Minister's categoric announcement about implementation of Namma Railu we shud
- announce a 'win' post in change.org & close the petition
-Praja shud now go to a different level & associate itself in proper implementation of commuter rail network than demand one.
Lets close the petition but keep going with awareness campaign
Lets close the petition, but make the awareness campaign even fast-paced.
In all of the cycle day events, I will try my best to be present in them with the standees and spread awareness about Commuter rail within bangalore and outside bangalore.
Deepak
Petition is closed, but campaign continues
Yes, the petition has been closed after acknowledging some positives from the railway budget. Certainly the campaign efforts continues. Stay tuned for updates.
With further small step moving on the Commuter Rail Bangalore
With Formally Railway Minister taking action to move the Suburban Rail / Commuter Rail Bangalore after long time.
Already RITES report available and DPR work for Ph1A is prgoressing, in such case, GOK and Railway Minister should come to an argreement on Cost Sharing with SPV and proceed further.
During last 5 years, we have seen some action by Railways without any heart in the services :
1. MEMU shed with 13 Crore announced and now 5 Crore allocated in the budget
2. MEMU Train between Marikuppam - Bangalore July'2013
3. Passenger Express Train Tumkur - Bangalore July2013
4. Passenger Train Nelamangala - Bangalore March2013
5. Hindapur and Tumkur Trains made 7 days from 6 days.
6. Bangarpet - Bangalore April2012
7. Yesvantpur - Hosur 2 services March'2010
8. Yesvantpur - Devanhalli March'2010
9. Bangalore - Ramanagar MEMU 3 services announced in July'2014
10. Bangalore - Nelamangala DEMU announced in July'2014
11. Yesvantpur - Hosur DEMU announced in July'2014
12. Yesvantpur - Tumkur passenger announced in July'2014
Still how many Trains SWR wants introduce around Bangalore without accepting on Commuter Rail / Suburban Rail.
Same time, how many Reports / Surveys GOK and Railway Minister wants to justify so that project can get delayed in providing relief to Citizens.
Ultimately either Railways or State has any interest in getting this project to deliver true value to Citizens in Urban Transport. Let them play their Cat and Mouse game, we citizens will catch both Cat and Mouse to close the game.
The real villain is the rail
The real villain is the rail board. The railway minister has okayed the project and the State Government has okayed the formation of SPV and gone ahead as well. It is upto the rail board to say yes to the SPV now instead of behaving like School Prinicpals and being squeamish about everything.
The persons who are going to
The persons who are going to be the lifeline of CRS are the Industrial workers and students. This is the case in Mumbai and Chennai as well.
We maybe able to create some awareness about CRS by distributing brochures at cycle day but there is the danger of this campaign becoming elitist.
The average IT folk is least bothered about CRS. He is more worried about the Metro and elevated roads.
We need to focus on workers from Automobile, Engineering and FMCG Industries. I have provided a sample list of units and educational institutions who could be contacted.
There are quite a few factories located close to railway stations or rail lines. Let us focus our efforts by making them aware of the need for CRS.
Newly added Trains
any Idea when the new trains added in the budget will start operating.. for example YPR - Hosur line.
This will certainly help the people working around KR Puram, Marathalli, Bellandur (There is a station very close to IT companies), electronic city phase 2 , Narayana Hrudalaya. also many colleges which have started will help people in commuting the distance quicly.
This will be the cheapest mode of transport. I only wish people will utilise it to the fullest means which will push the need for the sub urban train for bangalore.
if the trains utilized well, it will push the sub urban rail automatically.
to motivate people from using it, railways should encourage cycle carriages on the trains, BMTC shud organise feeder buses at the right times to integrate services.
after the trains are added, BMTC should reduce the buses on these lines just to encourage people to use the trains and buses should be redirected in other lines.
hoping to see that this utilization to the fullest.
now is the time
With BBMP planning for signal free corridor in Old Airport Road and Namma Metro going for Phase 2 construction in ITPL Road - this is the time to divert all the IT crowd to use CRS. Additional trains, end mile connectivity - if properly planned, the IT people are forced to use suburban rail for the next 3 to 5 years till Metro takes place. And they get used to it.
Support structure for the suburban trains
Thanks to minister Sadananda Gowda for adding a few trains in the direction of suburban rails for Bangalore even though not a full fledged service. But the other important thing is to have support for the trains in the form of suitable connectivity to the railway stations and at a sufficiently high frequency.
An example is Bellandur road railway station enroute from Byappanahalli to Hosur. This is close to Marathalli and can be useful for many people working in industries around here. But the station is at least 2 km from ring road and has almost no BMTC connectivity whatsoever. Some companies have provided shuttle to their employees but for a local train to be successful, people should not be expected to walk or take auto everyday and personal transport is ruled out because of lack of parking facilities.
Once the actual train service start, suitable BMTC service to the railway station from surrounding places such as Marathalli ring road bridge and silk board can help improve ridership and thereby sustain the initiative.
Let this effort not go waste for lack of ridership. this can be a factor which IR can give as a reason for discontinuing such local trains.
Lot of us are using 4 to 5 hours each day on the road for this daily commute to work. all this pain can be vastly reduced by having such a service. An important part of this is the connectivity to local train stations through public transport.
Persons going to
It is a very wrong feeling that IT people are least bothered about local train. Please visit bellandur road station near Marathalli during evening around 6PM. Despite complete absence of public transport to the station, you will see lot of employees waiting for the hosur YPR train at 6.30. some have even convinced their companies to introduce buses to drop them off.
please understand that IT people are also humans and have families. they also want to spend more time with their loved ones and not keep travelling for 5 hours/day.
And many of the online petition signatures for CRS that was given to DVS might be from these IT people.
and btw for reasonably useful metro to become available for electronic city, bannerghatta road etc is another 5 to 10 years away.
so what is important is to have sufficient frequency of the local trains, create awareness and importantly connectivity to the IR stations. e.g of the YPR hosur line - BMTC buses required from silk board and marathalli to bellandur road station, sarjapura to carmelaram station, electronic city to heelalige station, nagavara, byatarayanapura and RT nagar to hebbal station, vidyaranyapura, jalahalli to lottegolahalli station, hennur and HBR layout to banaswadi station etc.
@ Jagadish, The hordes of
@ Jagadish,
The hordes of people that I have spoken from friends and relatives circle are least bothered about CRS. Either they do not know what is CRS or if they know they have a negative impression about suburban railways.
Unfortunately, they are mostly from IT and ITES. Sometimes, we do tend to generalize based on sampling. Sorry about that.
Bellandur station & IT belt
I believe we only need more awareness and also basic facilities setup for people to consider and adopt it. Like chirag mentioned the bellandur station has very less facilities and poor connectivity .... and it is like what are 0.75km from outer ring road ? And of course the govt needs to realize this amazing solution & Prajas role in making the govt recognize it.
Even without all the necessary facilities people are still using this, and if it grows and if there is some statistics as to how much revenue is coming out of it & thus comes to the lime light then i think the CRS will get additional boost!
Here in below i have calculated the travel time between stations and cumulative time based on an existing passenger train between SBC and Hosur (bangalore-city-karaikal-fast-passenger-56514-sbc-to-blrr)
Can 1 imagine that from majestic u can reach Bellandur in ard 35 mins ? This single route extends from Baiyyappanahalli (near to whitefield), Bellandur (near to outer ring road), Karmelaram (near Sarjapur), Heelalige (near Electronic city)
Question is what can we do to increase awareness
Just with increased awareness, government folks will wake up and start making the facilities and increased train frequency happen.
I had a question to ask. The
I had a question to ask. Will the two states come together and work for the betterment of connectivity between Bangalore and Hosur?
Efforts made by Citizens and Media to create Awarness
During last 5/ 6 years, different people have pitched to create more awarness and it has spread quite well.
But still people reluctant to undersatand this Suburban rail / Commuter Rail
Aug'2010 : We had Round Table worskhop on Commuter Rail at CiSTUP / IISc during Aug'2010 supported by Prof T G Sitharam
Feb'2011 : BCIC industrial body was brought in to support from the Trade and Industry
2011 : Few places Pamphlet distribution done in few trains
14th July'2012 : Public Discussion in Bangalore city during July'2012 supported by different groups of Bangalore : ITHR, Hasiru Usiru,
Aug'2012, presented to different resident welfare associations with Ashiwn Mahesh
Aug'2012 : Public Awarness on Commuter Rail at Tumkur cancelled last minute
Jan'2013, awarness created to people in TheAlternative monthly workshop
Sept'2013 :During Krishi Mela at GKVK, 2000 pamphlet distributed in Kannada Language
Dec'2013 Workshop on Commuter Rail / Bangalore for Elected MLAs of Bangalore organised in Vidhansoudha with Prof Rajeev Gowda BNY and Praja
Dec'2013 : Awraness workshop done in Tumkur Railway meet with help of Tumkur Rail Prayaikar Vedike
June'2014 : Petition Campaign and Survey for creatig more public awarness
June'2014 : In Cycle Day event, standy / Banner on Commuter Rail displayed at Agara and Yelahanka.
Apart from the above, we had few times Train Journey to create more awarness on the existing travellers, SMS to all MLAs, Mails to CS / GOK, CM / GOK
We got the Commuter Rail / Suburban Rail details converted into Kannada also with help of different people.
Apart from all these, we had excellent Print media support like including TV Channels.
May be we did not approach few industry body like FKCCI, CII, Elcina, ITPL, Student bodies.
Lets here where we have missed in reaching to common public.
Two states will not come to gether. Its GOI should look for Big
As GOI needs present as Country in bigger way, it need to work with open mind and invest amount, without that no improvements on Suburban rail / Commuter Rail will happen
The efforts of Sanjeev and
The efforts of Sanjeev and his team shall never be in question.
More than anything else, I am appalled at the indifference shown by people when I speak to them. The second set of people are those who are ignorant. The third set of people are those who are against CRS on the grounds that is uncivilized and spare no opportunity to castigate Sanjeev and his team. The fourth set of people are those who believe the current set of DEMUs and MEMUs are good enough and there is no need for dedicated services.
Creating awareness
Many People may be intersted in travelling in these trains which are already operating now. The main problem of them is that they do not know when the train starts at their stations. for sure no one will go and check the station master or IRCTC. They end up not using it.
why cant we share the timings of the trains with arrival times in each stations and share it on Facebook, whatsapp, twitter with right groups..
For Heelalige station
- Residents of Suryanagar in electronic city may be made aware of it with the timings of the train.
- Bomsandra Industrial estate , IT firms, may be contacted
-Narayana Hrudalaya - So many patients come out of bangalore, website of the hospital does not show to get there. may be we can ask them to add the train timings on their site to facilitate the patients.
For Bellandur and Carmelaram
IT companies around Sarjapur , marathalli should be made aware. train timings in whatsapp , FB , twitter will create awareness. people for sure will travel. we should ask BMTC to add feeder buses to these stations.
It is just my view, may be this already done, but I am just suggesting this.
The efforts of Sanjeev & Team
Definitely no doubt, it is only through this forum i realized that there is a serious push to CRS, dont know if there is any other forum or group which is involved in pushing it.
And i really appreciate the selfless effort and pain taken by the team. It is quite unfortunate that the govt does not recognize it yet.
Water & Traffic will be the 2 main things that will choke Bangalore. High middle class population with spending power, city growing in outskirts, poor connectivity has all made people consider personal transport. Gone are the days of my grandparents, where their goal was to have a house and then a car if et al Possible. Back then only the father went out for work, wife at house and kids to nearby school. Consider this today all three need to head out in 3 different directions and that too usually far off. So now transport itself needs to have become the need of the day.
I read in article once, "A developed country is one where even rich people travel in public transport"
London, Stockholm, Oslo,
London, Stockholm, Oslo, Toronto, New York, Chicago are some cities with multiple rail networks. All of them have wonderful CRS networks as well.
No city runs entirely on a Metro network. Delhi's Metro may have been very successful but it has cost the exchequer Thousands of Crores and Delhi was able to get these funds only because of it being the capital. In addition, there is a White Elephant like the Metro Line to the Airport. Bangalore needs to learn from this and implement CRS to the Airport immediately.
People rooting for the Delhi model to be replicated in Bangalore are not aware of fiscal realities.
No Suburban Rail, Circuit Rail fro Bangalore just fooling people
circuit rail..
Hi
I really do not know or understand what is ciruit rail...I looked at google and got some info on wiki..please find the link http://en.wikipedia.org/w...
hope like me many are wondering what a circuit rail is or look like ?
DVS should explain clearly what does it mean ?
Regards
kamal
circular rail I think..
http://www.deccanherald.c...
This is what he is referring to I suppose..so I am afraid it may be more studies by rites etc and more delay!
see the circles?
Forget the proposed lines
Hi,
we should be more than happy if DVS immediatly starts EMU/DEMU/MEMU...on the existing tracks. it will cover more than 50% of Bangalore...let him call this as suburban rail or Namma railu or CIRCUIT rail...
we need the rail to run on track....thats it.
Regards
kamal.
GOK should act and take action
Its not commuter Rail which tripped, its Bangalore people will be tripped on traffic in coming weeks and no need to wait for years to face the traffic music, After new year, we will see the worst traffic condition in Bangalore. Will GOK take responsibility of failure to push the Commuter Rail Bangalore and act now sensibly to ensure project is back on Track. West Bengal has METRO system from Indian Railway, where West Bengal Govt does not even spend one Rupee, but in Bangalore we pay extra amount for fuel to fund the METRO, GOK pays from its nose for Railway projects but has failed get the benefit for the Karnataka.