Write to Chief Minister and demand CRS for Bengaluru!

The time has come for all us to become proactive and start building up the pressure and influence to advance the cause of Commuter Rail in Bengaluru. In past many times CRS has missed the bus. But this time lets ensure that it is impelmented ASAP.

The state Chief Minister is one entity who alone can decide the fate of CRS impelmentation. Let us start writing to him letters, emails and persist with our demand for early impelmentation of CRS in Bengaluru.

As our friend, a Praja member Navin Chandra had said,

"...Transportation is not a technical problem. It is not an infrastructure problem, It is not even a financial problem. Most often it is a political problem..."

How true it is. CRS now is a political problem and only politician can make it happen. Therefore lets start putting pressure on politicians by contacting them over phone, emails and writing formal letters to them. Lets start with our Chief Minister.

Directions to Send the petition to CM

Copy of the Draft letter is pasted below.

1. You may copy and paste the contents from the draft in a new word document.
2. Fill in your information where ever required.
3. Save the file. Review once again to make sure there are no typos. If any edit them and save it again.
4. Print, sign and Post it via Registered Post to CM's address given below:

The Hon. Chief Minister,
Government Of Karnataka,
Room No. 323,
Vidhana Soudha,
Bangalore-560001

Ph: 22253414, 22253424

Email - chiefminister@karnataka.gov.in

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Draft Letter

Date:

To
Hon. CM etc. Etc.

From
Bangalore Citizen


Dear Sir/ Madam (as appropriate),

The capital of our state, Bengaluru is a hot bed of economic and intellectual activity and the pride of India.  However, the rapid growth in recent years has stretched the city's infrastructure to breaking point, in terms of roads, power, water supply etc. As you may be aware, RITES has recently submitted a report commissioned by DULT that strongly endorses commuter rail as a solution that can economically solve many of our problems.

The population of the Bengaluru Urban area grew by 35% in the 1991-2001 decade and by about 47% in the 2001-11 time period. In order to cope with this growth the government has invested heavily. BMTC has added 3500 buses from 2006-07 to early 2011. Huge amounts of money have been invested in upgrading roads, building grade separators, the B-TRAC project and most recently for the Metro rail project which will add 115 kms of mass transit (phase-I and phase II combined) for a total estimated cost of 38,000 crores.  However, most experts are in agreement that even with the Metro fully operational, Bengaluru's public transport requirements are going to continue to exceed the combined capacity of BMTC and Namma Metro.  Here is where commuter rail comes in.

As the RITES report to the Department of Urban Land Transport (DULT) clearly highlights, Bengaluru has excellent rail lines of the Indian railways already running through the heart of the city. Just as in cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and more recently, Hyderabad, these rail lines can be effectively utilized and upgraded to add another high capacity mass transit option at a much cheaper cost as compared to other options.  By connecting neighboring towns such as Ramnagaram, Mandya, Tumkur, Doddaballapur, Bangarpet, Hosur etc., to Bengaluru city with a fast and efficient commuter rail system, multiple objectives will be achieved.  People living in these Satellite towns will be able to commute to the city for their employment without having to relocate to Bengaluru.  This will help in the economic prosperity of residents of these towns and routes along the way by connecting them to the economic hub that is Bengaluru.  Already, travelers in long distance trains along these routes know the huge pent up demand as citizens use these trains for their commute. By providing them with efficient and economic commuting options, migration of the population of these areas to Bengaluru city can be slowed and many challenges such as water needs of the Bengaluru area can be better addressed.

The same commuter rail system running within the heart of the city can serve as an alternate route for residents in the heart of the city to commute to their work centers be it IT hubs such Electronics City, ITPL and Outer Ring Road or industrial and manufacturing hubs such as Peenya or Bommasandra.

The RITES report submitted to DULT clearly identifies a phased approach to setting up commuter rail in the city.  According to their plan, for a 400 km commuter rail network, the investment required is of the order of 8000 crores, which work out to a relatively cheap 20 crore per kilometer.  Compare that with the Metro, which while being important, is expensive at nearly 330 crore a kilometer. This includes the cost of several rail system upgrades that will help run a higher capacity and more efficient commuter rail system.  It needs to be pointed out that although the number of 8000 crores is high, the initial phases can be started at a lower cost and subsequent phases taken up in the future.

An endeavor of such a nature cannot be accomplished without the active support and push of the state government. Many stake holders are involved in getting a successful commuter rail launched, principal among those being the Karnataka State Government, Indian Railways and the Central Government.  With your active backing, we are sure that the implementation of a commuter rail system for Bengaluru can start at the earliest. The value and Return of Investment in commuter rail is enormous.  We strongly urge you to lend the full weight of your office towards this cause.

Thanking You,

Sincerely,

(Signature)

Name
Phone/Email Address