Bengaluru city has reached a point of no return on providing congestion free flow of traffic on its roads. Any hope of Namma Metro coming to the rescue in coming days also been dashed with the news of further delays in its Phase-1 completion. Though city still has an opportunity to compensate for delays in Metro by opting for introducing suburban rail services, but GOK/Railways seems not at all interested. But lately, citizens are awakening to the alternatives for stress free daily commute. It is becoming evident to everybody that the road based solutions can only help so much. For a sustainable solution that last long, there is no alternative to rail based mass transit system. With Namma Metro getting delayed further, there can be no justification or excuse not to start implementing Suburban Rail Services in Bengaluru.

 

Since Namma Railu is not on GOK's radar, it is time to galvanize citizens voices to push Namma Railu to the front of the discussions in government corridors. Unless citizens start demanding, state government seems to be elusive to the Namma Railu proposal. 

 

In the pursuit of furthering the advocacy campaign for early implementation of Namma Railu, Suburban Rail Services in Bengaluru, Praja-RAAG in association with Bengaluru Needs You and South Western Railways, has taken up the unique effort to popularize the daily commute by train. The new campaign is christened as "RAIL DAY", which will be an once in month observance.

 

 On this day people are encouraged to leave their personal vehicles at home instead take trains to reach their workplace or businesses. On this day Namma Bengaluru will take the train and beat the traffic gridlocks. Rail Day observance is another opportunity to involve the citizens and show case the benefits of daily travel by trains. Rail Day will present the opportunity for citizens, railways and even state government to learn first hand the benefits of daily commute by trains.