Guest column: 'More automatic signalling systems need to be installed'

A suburban rail for Bengaluru using its existing railway infrastructure has been a long pending demand. The project has crawled for over a decade, but has been taken more seriously over the last few years by both the government of Karnataka and the Ministry of Railways ,which have agreed to implement it on a cost sharing basis owing to pressure from different quarters.

A RITES report submitted in 2012 underlined the importance of connecting Bengaluru with its suburbs. The MoU that followed between the state government and the Ministry of Railways for the suburban rail spoke of converting of 15 short distance trains to MEMU in the initial stages. This was one of the major milestones for the project as more rakes were later provided for converting short distance trains to MEMUs. Subsequent meetings discussed the work required to enhance the capacity of the tracks and stations through doubling, quadrupling, electrification, an automatic signalling system, elimination of level crossings, new coaching terminals and maintenance facilities.

The recent RITES detailed project report, which pegged the cost of creating exclusive suburban rail infrastructure at Rs 23,000 crore, is bold , having taken a long term perspective of the project. But it has not considered how to go about improving the existing suburban rail, which is already being used by two lakh commuters.

A few days ago, 19 kms of the Cantonment - Whitefield section was provided an automatic signalling system and in a couple of months, the Baiyyappanhalli terminal will become operational. In view of this the railways and state government need to install more automatic signalling systems, eliminate all level crossings across the BMR area and immediately plan for running of EMU rakes in Bengaluru instead of MEMUs and DEMUs. The government too must provide all support in terms of cost sharing and the required land.