Yesterday, on Dec 10th, a workshop on 'Suburban Rail' for elected representatives was organzied jointly by Praja-RAAG, Bangalore Needs You and IIMB. This was an initiative by Prof. Rajeev Gowda to bring the awareness among the elected representative. This workshop was organized at Conference Hall in Vidhana Soudha.
Here is the summary report on this event.
Report from Namma Railu team member Sanjeev Dyamannavar
"...Workshop for the elected reps went well. With Minister for Urban Dev Vinay Kumar Sorke, MLA Haris, Dr Rafeeq Ahmed, Veeranna Mathikatti, Ex MLC Venkatesh, FKCCI Chairmen Shivakumar, DRM Anil Kumar Agarwal, ADOM Dr Anup, Prof Sitharam, DULT Commissioner Manjula, Vinay Rao expert on Environmental Issues, Dy Speaker, Prakash Mandoth ZRUCC Member, from Praja : Murali, Sathya, Srinidhi, Sathindra Pal Chopra, Print Media people, session went well.
Minister Sorke gave an excellent speech on the Suburban Rail. Followed by my presentation in Kannada from Praja and Prof Rajeev spoke on gave Socio Economic benefits. Prof Sitharam gave the presentation on Stake Holders followed by Manjula Madam explaining the status of the project. SWR DRM offered to extend their co-operation in implementation of the project. Also DRM made statement saying Bangalore - Ramanagar MEMU service is planned and any time expected to be rolled out.
Further MLA Haris, Dr Rafeeq Ahmed spoke and expressed their support to take up with Railway Minister..."
Report from Namma Railu team member Srinidhi
Indeed would want to congratulate the Praja team, for the successful effort to bring the attention back on suburban rail at the highest seat of power. This I was sure would get a good lot of media attention too and so are the links below:
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/proposal-on-suburban-railway-system-sent-to-railway-ministry-sorake/article5444891.ece
It was also heartening to know that the UD Minister was already well aware of the importance of commuter rail.
One thing that came out of the meeting yesterday was that they are still seeing this as a heavy on investment option..this is evident from the statements Mr Sorake made about the 8500 crores funds needed and he hence conveniently parked it for the next year budget.
I was wondering if the information on the phase split with 1A costing as low as 175 crores needs to be put across more strongly in the coming days so that work on the SPV can start asap and not wait till the next budget.
Some things like the automatic signalling implementation which is independent of the SPV for commuter rail or other projects envisaged around it needs to be taken up immediately without any wait. This is the least Mr Kharge can start of doing for blr instead of focusing on frivolous projects like station upgrade etc..which is like putting makeup on an ajji..
Still as Sanjeev mentioned there is lots to do, but yesterdays meeting was a real milestone of sorts for NR.
On behalf of Praja-RAAG, I would like to thank Prof. Rajeev Gowda and his team for organizing this event and extending all help for making a grand success.
Also I would like to thank all the attendees who made special efforts to attend this event and extending their co-operation for taking this project forward.
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What's the status from DULT?
Sri, Sanjeev,
What is the status from DULT?
-Syed
BSRC is geting registered company, waiting for Railway Board
Now GOK is prepared for registartion of Company BSRC with GOK 100% equity and once Railway Board approves, then Equity will be shared equaly 50%.
Its Kharge who has to take interest on this. Does Kharge has ears to listen Bangalore needs???
One more thing : DRM made announcement that new MEMU services between Bangalore - Ramanagaram is put up to Railway Board and any time expected to start
more pics..
One thing is the railway officials are already talking about commuter rail service in place..including the connectivity they have provided to Marikuppam/Tumkur/Nelamangala etc..it needs to be made clear that those do not qualify as commuter rail service.
Report from Prof.Rajeev Gowda
Courtesy - Prof. Rajeev Gowda's FB Page
"...Yesterday, we at Bengaluru Needs You organized the Namma Railu - Bangalore suburban rail workshop for elected representatives in partnership with praja.in, Centre for Public Policy - IIM-B, and the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) at the Vidhana Soudha. The Urban Development Minister, Shri Vinay Kumar Sorake lent his support where his department will place a formal proposal before the Railway Board for the phase-1 of the project estimated to cost Rs 950 crore soon after the Detailed Project Report (DPR) is formulated, which is expected to be ready by December.
The other dignitaries present were Sri Veeranna Mathikatti, former Chairman of the Legislative Council, Sri Shiva Shankar Reddy, the Deputy Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly, Sri R V Venkatesh, Chief Whip Legislative Council , Government of Karnataka. The MLAs Sri Na Haris Shanthinagar, L.A.Ravi Subramanya and Dr. Rafeeq Ahmed from Tumkur were present as well. All of them have signed a petition to be submitted to Hon'ble Railway Minister, Mallikarjuna Kharge, for the approval of Namma Railu project. We hope the constant pressure from civil society groups, elected representatives and the Government of Karnataka will ensure that the proposal will find a way into the Railway Budget in February, 2014..."