Suburban rail: Is it finally on track?

A full-fledged train network for intra-city commute in Bengaluru faces numerous challenges in its quest to be ready by October 2025, the deadline set by the PM last June.

It’s been a long-standing dream: suburban trains on Bengaluru’s five railway corridors. They can complement Namma Metro well and fix the city’s notorious traffic problems.

Mooted decades ago, the Bengaluru Suburban Railway Project (BSRP) took the first step towards reality in 2018 when the Railway Board announced it under the new Suburban Rail Policy. While Bengalureans rejoiced, it took another two years for the actual proposal to see the light of day and get approval from the Union cabinet in October 2020 with a six-year deadline.

To execute the project, a special purpose vehicle was set up in the Rail Infrastructure Development Company (Karnataka), or K-RIDE, a joint venture between the state government and the railways.

But the pandemic meant the project remained a dream.

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June 20, 2022, promised to change that as Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly set a 40-month deadline for the project, while officially launching it.

With 12 of those 40 months over, it’s time to see how far the project has progressed and the challenges that stare it in the face. It’s also time we took a long, hard look at whether Bengaluru will really get the promised suburban railway in the next 28 months, by October 2025.

A careful assessment shows that only two of the four corridors will be ready by this deadline. The entire project will take at least five more years.

While many teething problems have been solved, some have proved too stubborn. The most critical problem is that the railways and the state government are not on the same page.

“Frankly speaking, it’s nobody’s project,” a well-placed K-RIDE source says. “The Railways isn’t interested and the state thinks it’s someone else’s baby.”

Unlike Namma Metro, in which state and central governments have equal stakes, the BSRP’s majority stake (51%) lies with Karnataka. “This 1% is the difference,” the source said.

Despite the 40-month deadline, the state’s erstwhile BJP government failed to own the project, the source said.

While K-RIDE requires a full-time managing director, the state hasn’t appointed one. The incumbent, Gaurav Gupta, is saddled with too many responsibilities. Besides heading K-RIDE, he is also the additional chief secretary of the Energy and Infrastructure Development Departments, posts that require dedicated attention.

“The current MD is proactive but there’s only so much he can do,” a K-RIDE official said. “Except him, nobody has power.” The official says Namma Metro’s rapid progress in recent years is because it has a full-time MD who has been given a free hand.

The official maintained that it was still possible to deliver the entire suburban project by October 2025 if the state got its act together. “If the state sets a tight deadline and provides us with the necessary resources, there’s no reason why we can’t meet the deadline.”

But the state has done the opposite. K-RIDE has a 30% staff shortage. Out of the 149 positions sanctioned, only 105 have been filled. Three crucial posts — General Manager (Electrical, Finance and HR) — have been vacant for more than a year now.

“Metro is a fancy project and the government is paying a lot more attention to it. Media and people also tend to think that the suburban rail project is less attractive,” says Sathya Sankaran, a mobility activist based in Bengaluru, explaining the “step-motherly” attitude towards BSRP.

While the Railways does oversee the project, it doesn’t have any incentive to expedite it. The director of the Metropolitan Transport Project (MTP), the executive director of the Railways’ Gati Shakti scheme and the chairman of the Railway Board conduct regular meetings to assess the pace of progress, the official said. “But why would the Railways show interest when the state isn’t keen?”

Who's responsible?

Besides customary statements, Bengaluru’s elected representatives have done little to expedite the project, according to the official. “Bengaluru MPs haven’t conducted a single meeting with K-RIDE,” the official said.

"The onus is more on those people who jumped to take credit for the sanction of the project. I challenge our public representatives to step forward at least now and sanctify the public commitment of the prime minister. Else, it is fair to conclude that they have let down the two crore people of Bengaluru and the surrounding towns by ignoring this much-needed project," said Rajkumar Dugar, a mobility activist and founder of Citizens for Citizens.

Bangalore Central MP, P C Mohan, a vocal supporter of the suburban train project, disagreed. He maintained that the project had made “considerable progress”. “You may not have seen visible progress but plenty of preliminary work has been done in the last year. Site surveys, land acquisition, tenders... so many things have been done,” he told DH and promised expedited work.

“There won’t be any hurdles. We will do whatever it takes to get the project going,” he said.

Bangalore South MP L S Tejasvi Surya said he met the chairman of the Railway Board in April and requested him to expedite the project. While Surya agreed that a full-time managing director was necessary, he didn’t explain why the previous BJP didn’t appoint one.

“Without a full-time MD, there will be a serious leadership crisis at the top,” he said.

He also raised issues of coordination between the railways and the state. “This is the first time the Railways and the state have come together to implement such a novel project. All design and safety approvals have to come through the Railways. There are challenges in inter-departmental and inter-ministerial coordination,” he said.

Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil, who recently conducted a review meeting with K-RIDE, said all troubles were being sorted out.

K-RIDE MD Gaurav Gutpa said: “BSRP’s teething troubles have smoothened out, funding from external agencies has been tied up and the project has gained significant momentum. We are working with the complete support of the Railways and the state government. However, all departments working in unison is the need of the hour. All-out efforts are being made to commission the project as scheduled.”

With inputs from:
Pranati A S & Shree D N