Govt looks at rail infra to bridge City's transport gap

The State government is looking at ways of better utilising the existing rail system to augment the transport infrastructure requirements of Bangalore, and has discussed the possibilities with the Union Ministry of Railways, said Vandita Sharma, Principal Secretary, Infrastructure Development Department, on Wednesday.

She was speaking at an open house session on ‘Urban Infrastructure and Connectivity to Bangalore’ organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Chairman, Vaman Acharya, said big industries, especially in the IT and electronics sectors, have done well in curbing pollution. Noting that Electronics City, and industrial estates in suburban Bommasandra and Peenya do not have even an underground drainage system yet, he said, “Even over a year after last year’s waste crisis in Bangalore, we still don’t have a good garbage management system in place.”

Suggesting that every industrial estate could look at converting waste into man-made sand and other useful material, he said, “Waste is when we put useful material in the wrong place. We can also reduce production of hazardous waste and use treated water like the BIA does. Instead of dumping hazardous waste, industries must convert or recycle into useful material.”

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd Managing Director Pradeep Singh Kharola said that Bangalore should be able to work at successfully integrating different modes of transport into the daily lives of its citizens. “Simply having a Metro system is not a long-term solution. We should have an integrated system incorporating the suburban rail transport, bus transport and other modes. It is also important that more people shift to public transport,” Kharola said.

He said the current work on the Bangalore Metro was almost nearing 90 per cent completion. “The roads will return to their original shape in the next few months,” he said.