Letter to the Editor
Postpone HSRL Project

Dear Sir,

Karnataka  Infrastructure Minister Mr Janardhan Reddy announced that the state Government will commence  work on high speed rail link to Bangalore  International airport from BRV theater, in spite of reservations expressed by experts and ABIDE -which has Chief Minister Yediyurappa and Ananth Kumar as its Chairman and Vice Chairman .If this project gets started, Rs 8000 crores of public money would be spent .
Practically speaking the passengers coming from Electronic city or Bidadi have to travel on their own vehicles  at least one and half hours to reach BRV theater, similarly VIP'S/ passangers travelling in executive class may not prefer to travel by HSRL 
Government must address these kind of investment proposals with a clear perspective of
a) Ensuring that its part of an overall transportation solution and architecture
b) Ensuring that it addresses a clear set of objectives (in this case of airport connectivity as well as bypassing center of city and affordability and access)
It would be good if our state Government  postpone this project for an year and concentrate on relief work in North Karnataka and in the meantime conduct a demand/viability study with  existing users and staff of BIAL, present operators -BMTC, organize  public hearing with passengers, chamber of commerce and industries and cargo agents before the commencement of the project
.The Government should also consider - Commuter Rail Service  with existing Railway lines alternatively  extending METRO Rail to BIAL, with modification instead of a new  High Speed Rail

N. Mukund
JAYANAGAR