Good news - we will soon get "Bangalore suburban rail", Namma Railu is chugging ahead!

With new Govt giving go-green signal,  with both Govt at state & center with good relation and Railway Minsiter from Karnataka,  its right time to go for SPV for Bangalore Commuter Rail  and let other actions like DPR, when to introduce, how much to fund can fall in line.  If the State Govt sends officals request to Railway Minister for thei Suburban Rail, things will start moving other wise,  we need to wait for another 2 years.

The State government formally approved the Bangalore Commuter/Suburban Rail System (CRS) earlier this week.

V Manjula, Commissioner, Department of Urban Land Transport, said on Saturday that the department was now in the process of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) for Phase I-A of the CRS.

“We have received the approval from the government for Phase I-A of the CRS and are in the process of preparing the DPR,” she confirmed.

As per the RITES (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) report, submitted in August 2012, Phase I-A will provide electrified train facilities on the two routes of Bangalore-Bangarpet and Bangalore-Mandya.

However, putting a spanner in the aspirations of the State government to start the commuter rail system, the Railways has said it cannot fund the project in Bangalore.

While it has given its ‘in-principle’ approval for the project, the Railways has said it will not absorb any financial burden for the project.

Rail systems facing loss

According to sources in the Railway Board, all the suburban railway systems in the country are making losses. So, speculations are rife over the Railways bearing portions of the cost to start the project.

Manjula said the department had already approached the Railways for a partnership deal on the project, but elicited no response.

“We will approach the Railways again and seek their support,” she said.

While the initial cost estimate for Phase I-A is put at Rs 174 crore, not factoring in the Binny Mills land cost, the final figures of the financial burden are yet to be estimated.

With the minimum infrastructure available for starting the Commuter/Suburban Rail System along the two lines, the government appears to have favoured this portion of the project before Phase I.

‘Acquire Binny Mill’

Meanwhile, in its suggestions, the Railways has also made it clear that the State government would have to acquire the Binny Mill land for the CRS. The RITES report had said: “To put in simple and plain words, without the Binny Mill land, there may not be a Commuter/Suburban Rail System.”

It is said the Railways does not want to share any of its platform infrastructure for the CRS at the City Railway Station as it would hamper the existing services to and from the heart of the City.


The two routes for Phase I-A as per the route map generated by DULT

   * Bangalore City-Nayandahalli-Jnanabharathi-Kengeri-Hejjala-Bidadi-Ramanagara
   * Bangalore City-Bangalore Cantonment-Bangalore East- Krishnarajapuram-Whitefield-Devanagonthi-Malur

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/343188/commuter-rail-system-gets-nod.html

Finally GOK  has made up its mind  on the CRS.   I do not understand why Bangalore should get such bad treatment  from Indian Railways.  

If  particular mode of  urban Transport  is bleeding,  does  it mean that do not provide the urban transport to citizens of other parts of country.  Its like saying, water supply & electricity boards are always making huge losses, so stop providing any further electricity or water supply to new area by the Govt????

It is said, a great journey is not complete with the first step, it continues with 2nd step.

However skeptic we may be, the fact is CRS has made a signficant progress since the fresh campaign began in May 2010 with that Train journey to Hosur.

It pays to be optimist and hopeful. Thanks to many supporters here on Praja and outside CRS is seeing progress that was never seen in the past. The reluctance on part of railways, GOK is known all along. Some say nothing news in the current approval claims; I may respectfully ask them to check again.

As of 2010, when the Praja members like Naveen, Sanjeev, IDS, silkboard, Rao and others started to pursue CRS, everybody from SWR to GOK had resigned to the fact that it is not doable given the odds against it. Each one has their own reasons for those sentiments. Now in 2013, is it the case? Where does CRS stands now?

Today as of July 2013,

• We have a RITES report, official Railway's entity, endorsing a case for CRS, laying down a road map and all the capacity full, feasibility discussions are laid to rest.
• CRS has been given official approval by the GOK
• CRS has been given inprincipal approval from Railways
• DULT now has official green signal to start the Phase 1A DPR

Therefore there is reason not only to smile again, but to celebrate the crossing of first hurdle. As I said, this is a first step. This journey is not complete unless the 2nd step is taken, i.e. move towards starting initial services what Naveen, Sanjeev are talking about.

The 2nd step is the implementation of Phase-1A as recommended in RITES report. Here is the synopsis of that Phase-1A - http://praja.in/en/projects/3110/announcement/200-crorers-initial-investment-start-bengaluru-crs-6-12-months-time

Time to continue the journey, not halt abruptly.

Congrats to the key Prajavaadis for their contributions in making this happen.  Thanks

@vasanth,

RITES report has dealt this subject in detail and have recommended to convert SBC, YPR, BNC to be 100% passenger terminal with NO shuting or maintenance activities.

The said report recommends developing stations like BYP, Hejjala, Yelahanka to be Coaching terminals with facilities for maintenance, stablizing and idling purposes.

I believe same holds good for all the major stations in the country including Mysore also.

Just looked up www.indiarailinfo.com for departures out of SBC.  Randomly picked PF2 for departure data.  Here are the departures from PF2

Time                Train No

0615                 2677

0800                 2610

1400                 8464

1820                 2786

1935                 6522

5 trains through the full day.  This is called underutilization of precious real estate.

Then PF1

0630                2608

0715                6514

0900                2295

1320                7209

1510                2640

1600                1014 (pass through - rake reversal)

1920                 2627

2000                 6530

2240                 2658

A grand total of 9 trains.  They actually manage to run two long distance trains with 20+ coaches within 40 mins (2627 K Express and 6530 U Express) - which should be the norm.

Arriving trains - someone can check.  But arriving trains should vacate the PF within 30 minutes.  Is there any earthly reason for them to hang around the station occupying a PF.  But do check the PFs.  There will be trains that have arrived even 2 hours before hanging about.

Tokyo Shinkansen has 6 Platforms and they manage 200 + trains a day each direction.

IR will find a hundred excuses not to start this.  One of my friends (used to work in IR) said that they hate commuter train services because there is no money in it.

Srivathsa

Would like to offer a POV...if the services are planned NOT to go towards Cantonment from SBC then platforms 1 to 8 are not to be considered for any calculations of availability.  From a services perspective, only those lines going via Nayadanahalli (towards Kengeri) or via Malleshwaram (towards Yeshwanthpur) would be from platform 9 (or is it 8?) onwards perhaps.

Need to check whether the number of IR services in those directions are lower than those coming/going via Cantt railway station. That is the distributionof the 65 services identified by Srivathsa ji

I am sure that even with this "constraint" of a max of 3-4 platforms available for CRS, IR's point that they cannot run commuter train services w/o being given the Binny Mills land may not hold out very well.

If electrification is a constraint, they could introduce DEMU's instead of MEMUs. Also they could limit the services to start with from 5 am to 10 am and 5 pm to 10 pm or provide more services in those times, and very few between 10 am and 5 pm if it helps reduce losses.  

SY,

Your analysis is bang on and this has been acknowledged and dealt in detailed in RITES report - Sec 6.3.

The inefficiency st SBC and other stations stems from various structural flaws. The current status is, leave alone any slot for CRS, there is hardly any slot for any additional NEW train.

The investment that is called in for CRS project, i.e. 8500 crores, out of which major portion is for fixing these infrastructure inefficiencies and help increase the railway's operational capacity in and around Bangalore.

Also it is time for IR to change their operational strategies like,

• Converting SBC, YPR to be 100% passenger terminals
• Create new Coaching terminals at places like Hejjala, Yelahanka, BYP etc
• Plan for enough Pit lines, Maintenance lines, stabilizing, Idling lines at all 4 corners of the city.

-Syed

"...The acutely overstretched Bangalore City Railway Station (Code: SBC) could dramatically improve its efficiency if converted from a terminal to a pass-through station..."

Source - RailNews

@vasanth,

Now that project has been approved by both GOK and GOI, it is time to start implementing it. The Phase1-A will mitigate some of the issues that you have mentioned on BLR-MYS and BLR-Bangarpet sections. Meanwhile plan for SPV, Phase-1 for implementation in next 2-3 years.

Lets put our efforts to keep the pressure on GOK/SWR to keep moving on CRS. If things have to sorted out at SBC, lets do it now. Why settle for less.

You can't blame GOI or IR railways for messed up priorities of your projects. When there is 50-50 partnership for many Railway projects, CRS can't be expected to be differently. It has more do with state's ability to get GOI/IRs nod for equal partnership.

More so it has to do with how our state politicians, MPs and MLAs,  lobby with IR for the projects. One just need to take a look at the questions asked by Karnataka MPS in parliament. Compare them to the questions lined by Kerala MPs.

Buck stops with state politicians. Only the crying baby gets attention............

Source - PostNoon

"...Economic growth beyond the city limits

With concentration of economic activity in Bangalore often leading to dire consequences, the need for expanding the growth in Bangalore to surrounding towns has been espoused by many experts. The Congress also seems to recognise this reality as its party manifesto proposes the creation of a Greater Bengaluru Region with infrastructure and administrative connections with surrounding cities like Kolar, Chikballapura, Doddaballapura, Ramnagara, Tumkur, Kanakapura..."

"...As many studies have pointed out, the development of physical infrastructure and transportation facilities for the city and its surrounding areas has the potential to spur growth and increase economic activities. Will the Siddaramaiah government put the development of Bangalore as a priority and allocate sufficient funds for its development? Will it address the infrastructural and transportation difficulties faced by its citizens and fulfill the electoral promises? The announcements in the upcoming budget and the subsequent decisions taken by the state government will signal the approach the new government has towards the city’s development..."

It's a great day for all 'Prajagalu'. A whopping sum of 8759 cr allocated for CRS , if newspaper reports r to be believed. Let us now strive to channelise this in right direction.

“A new train would be run which starts from Tumkur at 8 am as soon as possible,” he said. He also promised upgrading platforms, a railway underpass and a skywalk in the city, all in a phased manner. About 8,000 passengers, including 4,500 people with season tickets, travel between the two cities daily. Hitherto, they were travelling in the Sholapur-Bangalore Kurkure Express which would arrive here at 8.30 am. They were affected as the time of the train was rescheduled.

http://newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/Will-work-like-Dhoni-complete-projects-Kharge/2013/07/14/article1682952.ece
 

With one more service will get added to the couple of services and along with sanctioned Marikuppam - Bangalore city to be started.

Bangalore City and Yeshwanthpur cannot take more trains’

Railway Minister M. Mallikarjun Kharge has said that the Railways was considering developing the Yelahanka Railway Station in Bangalore as a full-fledged third terminus to overcome the shortage of platforms at Bangalore City and Yeshwantpur railway stations.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, Mr. Kharge said that both Bangalore City and Yeshwantpur railway stations have reached the saturation point and more trains cannot be accommodated there.

“As passengers want trains to reach Bangalore City in the morning hours, it has become impossible for the Railways to meet fresh demands for new trains from different centres,” he said.

He said that the proposal for developing Yelahanka as a full-fledged terminus was still in the initial stages and the cost involved and other logistics would be worked out soon.

Mr. Kharge said that there was a proposal before the Railways to introduce a new train from Bidar to Bangalore, but as the demand is for a night train, the proposal was kept pending due to the non availability of platforms either at Bangalore City or Yeshwantpur in the morning hours.

To a question, Mr. Kharge said that the Solapur-Yeshwantpur superfast express, which runs on alternate days now, would be made regular train from September 15.

Shortage of rakes was another problem and the rate of production of coaches did not match with the number of new trains announced by the Ministry, Mr Kharge said.

About the new projects to be taken up by the Railways, Mr. Kharge said that the main focus would be on ongoing projects. He would try to find additional resources to complete them rather than hurriedly announcing new projects.

‘Proposal in initial stages; cost and other logistics being worked out’

• ‘New Bidar-Bangalore train pending due to shortage of platforms’        http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/yelahanka-may-be-developed-as-a-fullfledged-railway-terminus/article4916175.ece

@ram14025 - Glad to see your note and to know that use are a member of Bangalore Rail users Consultative Committee.  Here is a question for you.  There are many of thes4e committee's and assocations around India Railways.  Some time back, I saw a you tube video on Hosur Rail User's association.

Anyone traveling second class in evening and night trains out of BLR can attest to the huge pent up demand for commuter rail service to neighboring towns.  I have once traveled RAC where the compartment was full of commuters till Bangarpet.

So the question is, can you help get alist and contacts in each of these associations and help reach out to them so there is more of a public voice for Namma Railu?

It is surprising to see that the Minister of Railways, Shri Mallikarjuna Kharge has spoken about making Yelahanka as a third railway terminus. Since years, the Ministry of Railways were talking about making Byappanahalli as next railway terminus after Bangalore City and Yeshwanthapura. Technically speaking, towards Chennai and beyond have increased like anything and demand to run more trains is on the  increase. Hence, making Byappanahalli as another terminus will certainly reduce pressure on the availability of platforms and other infrastructure at Bangalore City. Moreover, Byappanahalli is also having Metro Terminus which will serve passengers alighting at Byappanahalli to travel towards city areas. I am sure this move of the railways making Byappanahalli as a terminus will get immediate attention and priority of the Minister of Railways.

Regarding additional coaches required to meet the demand for running new trains, I would like to suggest that BEML Limited have two Divisions i.e. one in Bangalore and the other one in Kolar Gold Fields manufacturing conventional coaches apart from other coaches like Metro, DEMU/MEMU/OHE, etc. Required infrastructure are available with BEML and if need be, the railways can financially assist them to introduce latest technology in production of high speed conventional coaches, etc, which will certainly make them to increase production. Also a long term contract, say for next 10 years, for supply of coaches will be a boon to BEML, a Defence Public Sector Undertaking. This assured long term contract may make BEML management to think of a full-fledged Coach Factory at Kolar Gold Fields, where land is also available with BEML. Moreover, the present CMD of BEML Limited, Shri Dwarakanath, is a pioneer in the field of manufacture of railway coaches, whose consultation by the Railways will certainly solve shortage of coaches to a greater extent in the years to come.

Thanks for taking active participation on the need  for Commuter Rail / Suburban Rail.   As DRUCC committe of Bangalore should  write letter to curent Railway Minister to sanction more Suburban Coaches like DEMU / MEMU / EMU for Bangalore on priority without waiting for State Govt contribution.  This is an opportunity to get the things started for Bangalore.  You can contact us on : 9448135837 

The Namma Metro connection upto Yeshwantpur is nearing completion. However, the same cannot be said about connection to Yelahanka (which is only planned for phase 3, for which report will itself take approx 1 and half years).

Till then, why not introduce Commuter Rail System between Yelahanka to Yeshwantpur, where people can alight at Yeshwantpur, and then take metro, if required. Doubling of this track, I suppose should not take more than 6 months, and introduction of CRS in One year. We can have:

1. Hourly service from 0600 to 0900 hours, 1100 to 1700 hours, and 2000 to 2300 hours (If some superfast train is scheduled, then 5 minutes after the departure of that train).

2. 20-minute frequency service from 0900 to 1100 hours and 1700 to 2000 hours.

(This is just a small fraction of the service in Mumbai, where service begins at 0400 and lasts till 0100 hours, with a frequency of 2 to 6 minutes).

Moreover, parking lots have also been newly constructed here, so people can come in their own vehicle (cycle, 2wheeler or car), park them, and travel by train (for faster travel and eradication of traffic jams etc).

An additional station at Judicial Layout can be constructed as well (to cater to residents of Judicial Layout and Allalasandra).

The same can be thought about for the Yelahanka -Baiyappanahalli stretch also later on.

Also, the trip could be extended to Devanahalli/Doddaballapur also, once these routes are doubled and electrified as well.