Bengaluru may soon have a Mumbai-like suburban railway network to decongest the city and link it to the airport. The initial conceptual plan with drawings of how the project will look like, where the routes will be and with height and elevation details have been made — all this in just a month’s time.
Revealing this and showcasing it as the result of “the new confidence with which the Indian Railways is working with the commitment to time-bound delivery of services”, Railway Minister Piyush
Goyal on Friday listed out stepwise how the plan progressed over the last one month.
Goyal said the idea was suggested to him before he took over as the Railway Minister by senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar, who told him that he had been pushing for a suburban rail service for the Indian IT Capital since 1996.
He said that during a review meeting of South Western Railway on September 18, he asked the officials to study the city for a rail network and come up with a preliminary project report for an elevated network.
“And possibly also have a road on top of the rail to connect the airport to places of work in the city,” Goyal said while speaking at the International Conference on Green Initiatives and Railway Electrification here.
Goyal said he gave the SW Railways 30 days’ time to come up with a plan but on September 20 itself, when he was in the city again, he was given a document listing out initial action plans on the project to be executed within 28 days.
On September 26, Goyal said the SW railway construction wing of Bengaluru awarded the consultancy to the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES), a Government of India initiative, for a conceptual planning and study of the proposal.
By October 1, the minister pointed out, he was presented with a rough assessment on the availability of land for commercial use including the relocation requirements.
“They used Google to locate and prepare the plan where land is available because the scheme has to be self-financed. Then they identified various sections which need to be elevated and also pointed out which were to be done on ground,” he said.
By October 18, the RITES had already finalised an
initial conceptual plan with drawings of how the project will look like, where the routes will be and with height and elevation details, the minister said adding “So in a months’ time, we have a proposal upon which the IR (Indian Railways) can now start deliberating. I am sharing this to reflect the new confidence with which the Indian Railways is working with the commitment to time-bound delivery of services.”