No existing tracks for commuter trains

Bengalureans’ collective yearning for a suburban rail to decongest its roads has hit a serious roadblock: The Centre’s draft Suburban Rail System policy that makes it tough for any such service to run on existing tracks. The onus of making land available for dedicated suburban tracks has now been shifted to the state government.

The policy has come as a rude shock for everyone campaigning for a full-fledged commuter rail system. A local train network was considered cheaper than Metro, because the need for land acquisition was minimal. The existing tracks were under-utilised and could have easily accommodated a dedicated suburban service.

Here’s how the policy draft justifies the move to halt any sharing of current assets: “Running suburban services on existing tracks adversely affects the capacity of freight trains and long-distance trains. It would not be possible for Railways to use existing infrastructure for the purpose of suburban services.”

Long-distance trains occupy the tracks only for a short period of time. Why can’t local trains use the same lines by automating the signals and upgrading stations? This is the campaigners’ contention, who have dubbed the policy ‘retrograde.’ “The policy also talks about creating a Special Project Vehicle (SPV). But why leave out the existing non-congested lines?” asks urban rail analyst Satya Sankaran.

Urban transport fund
To finance the SPV, the state governments will have to set up a dedicated urban transport fund. This, says the draft, can be achieved through levy of dedicated taxes, betterment tax and impact fee. Once the state government acquires 70% of the land, the Indian Railways will only contribute its equity share to the SPV.

On lease basis
The policy makes it clear that Indian Railways would provide land on lease basis only where feasible, considering its future requirements. Effectively, despite the state bearing up to 66% of the costs in projects such as the Bengaluru-Mysuru track doubling, it will have no say in the kind of train service to be run. “This policy will put spokes in the efforts to put some commuter rail service in place,” notes Sankaran.

A very skeletal service currently operates with MEMU and DEMU trains. This, according to analyst Sanjeev Dyamannavar, should ideally come under the SPV. The cost and losses, if any, should be shared.