SKY BUS; A
SOLUTION TO INDIA'S TRANSPORT PROBLEM ..!!!
On one hand
the progress chart of India has been hailed but the benefits have not
percolated to the lower strata of society. The Sky bus project which is path
breaking indigenously-developed technology is one example of the slow pace
things move in the Indian democracy.
Indian infrastructure is facing the problems which any surging economy
faces in its transitional phase. With rapid growth on the economic front,
Indian transport system is trying to have grip over the situation, what with
crammed roads, overcrowded trains and buses, being a usual scene in the metros
and the major cities of the country.
The Sky Bus transport was taunted
as one of the solution to ease the load on the congested traffic lines of the
Indian metros. That was almost three years back when the railway minister
dedicated the modern rail transport system technology to the world when federal
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav dedicated the Sky bus project to the nation
on October 15 2004 in the western Indian state of Goa.
But in the intervening period, since October 2004 the project has been
caught in a dilemma with the indigenously-developed Sky Bus technology awaiting
a nod from federal law makers on whether it should be introduced in India.
"My biggest problem is that the railway ministry has not been able
to decide whether the skybus is a train or a bus. In fact, the skybus is ready
for commercial use but for policy constraints," B Rajaram, the former
managing director of Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC), had said before his retirement
in Jan. 2005.
Sky Bus
transport- what is that - is that is the immediate
question which shoots up. The Sky bus is essentially a fusion of a bus and a train. Its
carriage looks like a bus, but it runs like a train, and instead of the
compartments running on rails, they hang below the rails and slide 10 metres
above the regular road traffic.
The new technology innovation is Rajaram's baby and he holds patent
rights for it in the US.
A second, KRC Managing Director Dr K K Gokhale retired recently and he
had these to say about the pending sky bus project which is awaiting the light
of the day.
"The Union Cabinet has informally cleared a proposal to bring in
legislation. But, the Bill is yet to be placed before Parliament to make it a
law," he has said last month.
Contrary to the views of its managing directors, the Konkan railway
website mentions that - Sky Bus metro falls under tramway category, under Art
366(20) of Constitution of India, since it operates along existing roadways and
within municipal limits, hence excluded from Indian railway act.
The former MD of KRC Rajaram has been vocal in propagating sky bus as
the one of the solution to decongesting the cities. "At Rs.50 crores per
kilometre, it will provide the same services at one-fourth the cost of the Delhi
metro. Unlike the metro, the skybus follows existing roads, thus reaching into
the very heart of the city while decongesting the roads. Moreover, it can be
implemented and commissioned within two years," he says.
The two-coach Skybus has a capacity for 300 passengers on a single trip
and depending on the number of coaches, it is expected to handle 18,000 to one
lakh passengers per hour.
But concerns over safety issue have been the major fears of the railway
ministry on this untested technology and not so keen attitude to push things
and they fear a black lash from the public if something goes wrong.
And the testing of the technology has come at the cost of human life and
that's where the concerns of safety have been raised. On September 25, 2004
during a test run, the sky bus over sped and hit a pole- one died and two
others were injured.
"The accident most likely occurred because the bogey was heading at
a higher speed than it should have. Also it oscillated to a higher degree than
we had expected," KRC MD B Rajaram reported at that time.
The Skybus does not really need a driver or an operator. When the Skybus
approaches a station, it is supposed to slow down by itself and stop. The brake
is only for emergency usage. In this case, the Skybus did not slow down, and
the Control room threw the emergency brake which resulted in the accident. The
accident happened on the 1.5 km test track in Goa.
Each part of the Skybus was made in India by contractors and corporate's
like the Tata’s and Essar provided construction material free or at nominal
rates to Konkan Railway for building the test track in Goa.
The KRC has spend Rs 50 crore on this project at the 1.5 km testing
laboratory at the Margao railway station, in Goa, as the new technology awaits
a nod for its commercial use.
"Skybus is the story of Indian industry and entrepreneurs coming
together to produce a unique thing," Rajaram had said.
Till then, the unique Indian innovation awaits the nod from the Indian
law makers, on whether it will be best suited for commercial use or it will
just rust out on the Goa tracks.
Why Sky Bus is an ideal solution according to KRC:
Follows the existing roads- but does not take road space- and be as
flexible as a bus
Have rail based mass transit capacity, same as existing rail metro
Does not divide city while providing integration along its alignment
Be derailment and collision proof- with NO CAPSIZING of coaches- so that
there can never be loss of life
Be free from vandalism
Noise free and pollution-free
Non-invasive -requiring the least amount of scarce land space- and not
come in the way of development.
Salient features of the Sky Bus
Heavy 52/60 kilograms /metres rails placed at standard gauge floating in
elastic medium and damped by inertia of measured mass held in an 8 metres X
2metres box enclosure, supported over a 1m diameter. columns spaced at 15
metres and located at 15 metres distance from each other, in the divider space
in between lanes on a road- way, at a height of 8metre above road surface-
provides the support and guidance for powered bogies which can run at 100 kmph,
with the coach shells suspended below, carry passengers in air conditioned
comfort, can follow existing road routes, while existing traffic on roads
continue.
Aesthetic and eco-friendly, the Sky Bus can never derail, capsize nor
collide- by design as well as by construction, hence is safer than existing
rail-based system.
With no signalling and having no points and crossings, it is a unique
mass-transit system, which can be put up within two years in any crowded &
congested city.
Sky Bus metro falls under tramway category, under Art 366(20) of
Constitution of India, since it operates along existing roadways and within
municipal limits, hence excluded from Indian railway act.
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