SKY BUS PROJECT RECEIVES A NEW LIFE WITH LALU PRASAD’S NOD
November 18, 2006 (Press Release) --
A newspaper report quoting Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav as saying that he has given the green signal to the Sky Bus metro “in Goa” must have gladdened the hearts of several engineers of the Konkan Railway Corporation,(KRC), more particularly the former Managing Director of the KRC, Engineer B. Rajaram, who retired from his post on January 31,2005.
The Sky Bus Metro, for which a demonstration was given by Er. Rajaram in January 2005 to a group of visiting journalists from New Delhi, has, however, not yet received clearance from the Railway Safety organization which works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and not the Railways.
Although the journalists were aware that the Safety Commissioner had not yet given clearance to the project, all of them had readily boarded a sky bus metro coach for a ride at the Madgaon, south Goa, testing range of the project after each of them had signed an indemnity bond, absolving KRC for any responsibility for a mishap during the demonstration.
The clearance to the sky bus metro was withheld after an accident on September 25, 2004 in which one person was killed while tests were in progress. This was set back to this ambitious programme of much less costly urban transport system. What is more galling for KRC is that in the meanwhile, two of the largest metro cities in India, which for which Sky Bus metro had prepared plans for its launch—Mumbai and Bangalore – have already opted for the Delhi Metro type projects in quick succession during the last few weeks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laying the foundation stone for both projects.
According to the Sky Bus metro literature prepared in 2004-05, the Mumbai project would have covered a total of 110.10 kilometres in 11 routes with a cost of only Rs. 55,050 million, and the Bangalore Sky Bus Metro with a total length of 99.90 kilometres with eight routes would vive cost Rs.4495.50 million.
What is more, the peak north-south capacity of the Mumbai Sky Bus Metro would have been 1,44,000 per direction and the total capacity would have been 191 million passenger-kilometres per day. For Bangalore, the figure was 181 million passenger-kilometres per day.
According the KRC literature, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had described the sky bus technology (described later), as “technically sound”: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had said in 2003 that “it had to happen”. An expert committee had said that it was “safer than existing systems”. Safety certification had come from TUV Inter Traffic GmbH, Germany. It has a capacity of carrying 40,000 to 100,000 passengers per hour. It can decongest roads and eliminate trucks from cities too (by carrying goods in containers moving like sky bus vehicles) and it is eco-friendly, and has noise--free automated operation.
Sky bus, according to Er. B. Rajaram, is the first non-invasive (that is not digging tunnels below road surfaces) mass rapid transport system giving benefi
The Sky Bus Metro, for which a demonstration was given by Er. Rajaram in January 2005 to a group of visiting journalists from New Delhi, has, however, not yet received clearance from the Railway Safety organization which works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and not the Railways.
Although the journalists were aware that the Safety Commissioner had not yet given clearance to the project, all of them had readily boarded a sky bus metro coach for a ride at the Madgaon, south Goa, testing range of the project after each of them had signed an indemnity bond, absolving KRC for any responsibility for a mishap during the demonstration.
The clearance to the sky bus metro was withheld after an accident on September 25, 2004 in which one person was killed while tests were in progress. This was set back to this ambitious programme of much less costly urban transport system. What is more galling for KRC is that in the meanwhile, two of the largest metro cities in India, which for which Sky Bus metro had prepared plans for its launch—Mumbai and Bangalore – have already opted for the Delhi Metro type projects in quick succession during the last few weeks, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laying the foundation stone for both projects.
According to the Sky Bus metro literature prepared in 2004-05, the Mumbai project would have covered a total of 110.10 kilometres in 11 routes with a cost of only Rs. 55,050 million, and the Bangalore Sky Bus Metro with a total length of 99.90 kilometres with eight routes would vive cost Rs.4495.50 million.
What is more, the peak north-south capacity of the Mumbai Sky Bus Metro would have been 1,44,000 per direction and the total capacity would have been 191 million passenger-kilometres per day. For Bangalore, the figure was 181 million passenger-kilometres per day.
According the KRC literature, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had described the sky bus technology (described later), as “technically sound”: Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had said in 2003 that “it had to happen”. An expert committee had said that it was “safer than existing systems”. Safety certification had come from TUV Inter Traffic GmbH, Germany. It has a capacity of carrying 40,000 to 100,000 passengers per hour. It can decongest roads and eliminate trucks from cities too (by carrying goods in containers moving like sky bus vehicles) and it is eco-friendly, and has noise--free automated operation.
Sky bus, according to Er. B. Rajaram, is the first non-invasive (that is not digging tunnels below road surfaces) mass rapid transport system giving benefi
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