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Originally Posted by suresh_gs Back in bangalore, lethargy seems to be the order of the day.Instead of finding solutions as to how the roads can be decongested, they think of impractical idea like tunneled roads for this city. |
Thinking from a devil's advocate stand point:-
1. How much ever we joke about, I don't think any politician in Bangalore (or for that matter, India) is actually a dumbo. A plain and simple dumbo just cannot survive in the Indian political scenario even for a few weeks. They all are quite smart, know how to influence people and know their own self worth and standing.
2. Keeping #1 in mind, I now tend to believe that as for Karnataka politicians the issues which gets highlighted mainly by the techies are of no value, or low value. The political class in Karnataka knows their vote bank and their priorities, and where the funds should go (and the benefits of the same).
3. Keeping #2 in mind, it would be quite natural for the politicians to ensure that they have a steady pipe line of income/revenue (through taxes, real estate etc.) which can be tapped and utilised for their pet schemes. The present government has repeatedly come up with schemes which are nothing but freebies benefiting specific communities. The money spent for such free loading schemes is what is actually given by the IT crowd :P.
4. The state level politicians knows that they require a large set of people who can give money, but can be safely ignored. Or just pampered by giving empty talks or some very petty comfort levels. All this talks about Metro or this tunnels having roads are just that. If some one believes all this, then it is at his own peril.
5. At present we have a)state government which has large sums of money at its disposal, b)a large set of migrant population who is the tap which gives good money inflow c)a group of land lords and other local war lords who were pretty much rich any ways, now given a good chance to get richer further and their social fabric and clout remaining intact d)a large set of state's own citizens who were any way not having a good life, given slightly better life styles but still can be influenced by people mentioned in point # c). So to be quite frank as a state Karnataka and its political class have made some pretty good/smart moves.
PS: The only problem I fore-see if their is a real estate crash or some disruptive technology comes up which makes an alternative for Bangalore to come up. But here again I feel the people who would be in firing line would be the banks (through loans becoming NPAs), and the lower rung of the society who would suddenly see that their fortunes have taken a hit. But still the gangs, communities, politicians who held sway even before the IT set its foot in Karnataka would still retain all their power.
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Originally Posted by nambiarshreyas wouldnt it be simpler to just build a service on top of the already existing infra of the railways.
It might be simpler and quicker in the short term to introduce suburban trains to run from existing stations in the city to Whitefield and Carmelaram to service ITPL and the ORR offices |
It could have been done if that vision was existence right when IT started picking up. Perhaps at that point of time the state government's plan may have been to generate revenue by encouraging people to have more two wheelers and cars. The railways have always insisted that a suburban network for Bangalore has to be done on a cost sharing basis. No free stuff from the railways exclusively for Bangalore city. Now the problems have increased manifold.
1. Whitefield traffic problems: The railway line catering to this area is the Bangalore City-Bangarapet main line. Double tracks and electrified. On these two lines run all the express/mail trains which hits Bangalore City Railway station. In between these the passenger trains to Bangarapet etc. gets squeezed in. Thanks to all this further trains just shuttling between Bangalore City and Whitfield may not be possible. Or at the max one or two can be run, but it cannot be run as frequently as in Mumbai (NOTE: Mumbai suburban network has four tracks, two exclusively for slow trains and two for fast locals+mail/express trains).
2. Electronics City: Nearest rail-head is Heelalige (a cute station, BTW - reminds me of some shown in movies) which is on the Bangalore-Hosur route. This line is non-electrified and single-line. The "through put" on this line would be very minimal. "Crossing" would be way too high. Trains have to be operated in such a way that all crossings or over-takes have to be timed precisely to happen at Carmelaram, Heelalige or Anekal Road. Carmelaram, Heelalige and Anekal Road does not have any pit lines, loop lines to hold back suburban trains. This line also is used heavily used for goods trains and good number of express trains. Commuter trains from Dharmapuri and Hosur also uses these lines.
So if a good suburban network has to be commissioned railways would have to make some good kms into double line (or even more). If more seamless train movements needs to happen, it may also have to electrify the entire region (to avoid loco changes etc.). There are also some tricky points especially between Bayyapanahalli and Bangalore East. This is where the cross-over happens, for trains coming from Hosur side to move to Yeshwantpur side, and trains coming from K.R Puram and City side also to change directions towards Yeshwantpur.
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Originally Posted by nitheeshsreeram But even Mumbai has not implemented metro properly. |
But Mumbai did have a good working suburban train network. Mumbai started thinking seriously of Metro mainly for the East-West connectivity (suburban trains already covered the North South- and the North East-South connectivity). I still feel they are more proactive.