-: [rti4empowerment] Mumbai Suburban Railways, World Class International Metro & RTI - Part

Thursday, November 10, 2011

[rti4empowerment] Mumbai Suburban Railways, World Class International Metro & RTI - Part - IV

RTI reveals that Mumbai Suburban Railways (Western, Central & Harbor) can be transformed into a World Class Metro at just 1/5th of the cost laying down a New Metro Rapid Rail Transit System.

Earlier Part – III of the series described the journey of a Railway Study Report, as to how it moves slowly at a snail's pace from March 2005 to March 2011.

Now, Continued Part – IV

Another iterative RTI application was filed to seek information on further file movement since March 2011 up to Sept, 2011.

It seems that with successive RTI applications the file movement of the Study Report acquired some reasonable speed in last six months, but that still has not been good enough for the study report to reach its logical destination ..... Please read further .....

The journey from March 2011 to September, 2011.

Sr.	File Movement ( Step 1 – 18 were covered in Part – III )	Date	No of days between two steps of the File Movement
19	Railway Board (Delhi) writes to MD of MRVC (after 28-03-2011 as on 11-07-2011)	11-07-2011	105
20	MRVC writes to World Bank seeking its NOC	14-07-2011	3
21	Western Railway seeks advice from MRVC for preparing Design, Engg and Bid Documents.	18-07-2011	4
22	MRVC informs Railway Board that they have requested the World Bank to expedite issuing of NOC.	20-07-2011	2
23	Railway Board writes to MRVC asking it to ascertain the present day relevance of MTR Corp. Hong Kong's 2005 report, given that it is 2011 now, Also a copy of necessary approvals of Western Railway, Central Railway and Railway Board to be made available to its office.	08-08-2011	19
24	MRVC takes into account the point raised by the Railway Board on relevance of 2005 report in 2011, and decides to seek Western Railway's opinion on the same.	16-08-2011	8
25	MRVC writes to Western Railway seeking its advice on modifications required up-to-date in 2011 for implementation of MTR Corp., Hong Kong's 2005 report.	20-09-2011	35

Journey of a Railway Report from March, 2005 to March-2011 to Sept-2011

A Report Welcomed & Accepted by all the concerned Govt. Authorities

But the Decision Making Process takes six Years as described in Part – III and now further another six Long Months as described in Part – IV, and the RED TAPE continues ….. while 700 thousand Mumbaikars Safar (travel) daily to Suffer …..

Key to the Problem for Dear Govt to consider (very important):

MRVC being the nodal agency for development of Railways in Mumbai has to co-ordinate with five separate Authorities:

1. Planning Commission,

2. Western Railway,

3. Central Railway,

4. Railway Board (Delhi) and

5. World Bank.

And so if a Nodal Public Authority has to deal with five other Authorities apart from itself (which makes a total of six authorities) what can happen to the efficacy of a decision making process is there for all of us to see .....

Therefore, should there not be some mechanism in place whereby various Public Authorities working on a single subject engage themselves in a unified, prompt and a time-bound approach for developmental issues affecting the lives of millions of people?

Thus, RTI reveals, that as per the implementation schedule proposed in the Study Report, if the decision had been taken in time, by now in 2011, the Mumbaikars would have been traveling in a World Class Metro at just the fraction of the cost of a New Metro! (Fundamental infrastructure being already in the place).

Better Late than Never :)

A Sincere Thanks:

I greatly appreciate Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) for having taken the initiative of inviting MTR Corp. Hong Kong and jointly carrying out a genuine detailed study for up-gradation of Mumbai Suburban Railways in 2005.

I also appreciate the PIO of MRVC for having made sincere efforts (during each iterative RTI application) to provide the requested information.