RITES - Bangalore City short on Railway Infrastructure

"...Prabhath K N, a resident of NGEF Layout along the outer ring road, who was at the Kengeri railway station a few days ago to book his tickets, said: “I had to wait for more than 90 minutes to get my reservation done at the counter. Even though there are three counters (one for reserved and two for unreserved tickets), most times, one of the counters is closed because of shortage of railway staff. So, passengers end up waiting in long queues to buy their tickets,” he said..."

"...Noor Ahmed, a resident of Kumbalgod, said stoppage of important trains such as the Shatabdi Express and Tippu Express would help passengers save travel cost and time. “Since these trains don’t stop at the Kengeri station, we have to go all the way to the city core to catch a train or get off at a station nearer home on the return journey,” he said..."

"...Sumana K, a resident of Banaswadi, said even though the SWR had displayed a list of facilities, including the number of drinking water taps, public address system and touch-screen inquiry, many of the services were either defunct or not maintained properly at the Banaswadi railway station. “Also, there is no proper mechanism for the public to lodge complaints or a follow-up mechanism for that matter,” she said..."

Source - Deccan Herald

Demand for more stations, better facilities at stations, more trains is nothing new. Every Railway Budget reignites the debate on step motherly treatment by Indian Railways. One can go into the ideological debate into this topic, but no one can deny the truth about deprivation of better railway facilities to Bangalore in Particular and Karnataka state in general.

I would lay the blame on the chief's of Railway Zones that catered to Bangalore City. For reasons known only to them each one of them hardly made any difference to Bangalore's needs. As it is my personal view that Today Indian Railways for it to turn around needs ministers like Chidambaram, now I say that SWR need likes of somebody who is from Karnataka and who would like to correct the perception about Railways In Karnataka.

The opinion about SR/SWR's lethargy towards Bengaluru is not based on fiction or imaginary facts. In one of the RTI replies, SWR declared that in past 2-3 decades, barring Broad Guage and some cosmetic changes at SBC, they have hardly improved any of the railway infrastructure.

http://praja.in/en/blog/kbsyed61/2011/05/14/state-south-western-railways

http://praja.in/en/projects/3110/announcement/how-swr-has-admitted-its-short-comings-signalling-bayippanahhali-0

The final stamp of this assertion is done in 2012 RITES report on "Implementing CRS In Bengaluru". RITES reports has bares all the improvements that have been not done by railways in past. It doesn't stop there, but goes beyond in prescribing the remedial measures to address these shortcomings. And more importantly it prescribes the infrastructure improvements that would change the landscape of railways in terms of its increased capacity, efficiency and meeting the current and future demand.

Here it is important to point to the fact, if CRS is implemented with all the improvements recommended by RITES, will address almost all of the railway infrastructure shortcomings. As saying goes, Ek teer se 2 Shikar. Rightly so. CRS will also immensely increases the total capacity  of Railways for long distance travel - More trains, more frequency and more stations to cater etc.

Highlights of 2012 RITES Report, Section 5 - Capacity Enhancement Strategies

Bangalore - SBC Terminal

• Shifting 4 Pit lines to Binny Mills land
• No terminal or shunting operations
• Universal dispatch/receiving facilities
• Platforms to be full length
• Trains to go in all directions (YPR to MYS and BYPL, MYS to YPR, BYPL, BYPL to MYS, YPR directions)
• Add 5 more platforms (Current 10), total 15.

This will increase the SBC 's current handling capacity from 60 to 150 pairs of trains

Yeswantpur Terminal

• 3 More Pit lines

This will increase YPR terminal capacity from 37 to 60 pairs of trains.

Baiyappanahalli Terminal

• 10 new pit  lines
• 5 new stabling lines
• 6 R&D lines
• 5 platforms

This will allow BYPL to handle 70 pairs of trains from 0 pair it is handling now.

Multi Terminal on MYS Section

• Adding 1 platform each Kengeri, Hejjala, Bidadi, Ramanagaram, Channapatna, Maddur and Mandya.
• Terminate one train at each of the above station

This will bring relief to SBC and enhances the commuter capacity.

Hejjala Terminal

• Develop this as 4th coaching terminal
• 6 new pit lines

Flyovers to avoid criss-cross movements at BYPL and YPR

• Bangalore - Hosur flyover
• Bangarpet - Yelahanka Flyover
• Bangarpet - Hebbal Flyover
• Yelahanka - Bangalore flyover
• at LOGH

Automatic Signaling

• Replace existing block signaling with Automatic signaling
• Will give a spacing of 2Km compare to existing 4-6 Kms.

Electrification and Doubling

• All sections at minimum be double lines
• All lines must be electrified

Level Crossings

• All level crossings to be replaced with ROB/RUB