The commuter rail project in Bengaluru may never take off, going by the response of the authorities concerned. The Union government, in 2009, had requested the South Western Railway (SWR) to introduce trains on nine local corridors for a commuter rail. But, SWR has failed to introduce the trains citing infrastructure woes.
In a letter to the Ministry of Railways, Parliament member Rajeev Chandrasekhar had sought answers to a few questions submitted by him on the commuter rail system in Bengaluru. He had asked the railway ministry if the government has received any proposal to introduce a Commuter Rail System in Bengaluru to ease transportation within the city and surrounding towns. He had also sought to know by when government proposed to complete this project.
Replying to Mr Chandrasekhar’s queries on September 7, Minister of State for Railways Bharatsinh Solanki stated: “The government has received a proposal to introduce Commuter Rail System in Bengaluru. M/s Rail India Technical and Economics Services (RITES) had submitted a report on commuter trains in Bengaluru in 2009. Based on the report, the State government requested South Western Railway to operate trains in nine corridors. South Western Railway (SWR) has introduced two commuter special trains in 2010.
However, the SWR could not meet the full requirements as given in the RITES report due to severe bottleneck of infrastructure facilities and paths. The completion date of this project has not been fixed yet”.In July this year, several groups and the railways reiterated steps to introduce a Commuter Rail System. The RITES had made changes in the report submitted in 2009 and the report was presented again. The RITES, in its report, stated that Binny Mills land should be used for expansion of the railway station at Majestic. It was proposed that the proposed Commuter Rail Service for Bengaluru would run on existing railway lines, but the talks have made no further headway, leaving the project in a limbo.