Yawn: Govt plans comprehensive traffic study for City

Govt plans comprehensive traffic study for City

Vijay Times

Bangalore: Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (KUIDC) will undertake a comprehensive traffic plan (CTP) survey for Bangalore to study the feasibility of a multimodal transport system in which mono rail and electric buses could supplement metro rail.

Observing that the city does not have a specific traffic programme in place, K N Srivastava, managing director, Bangalore Metro Rail Transit Limited (BMRTL), told Vijay Times that the study would analyse assigning heavy commuter traffic to metro rail while the medium traffic and light traffic could be transported by monorail and electric buses respectively.
If the proposal is approved, he said that the work will be carried out in phases. The first phase expected to commence in July will entail commissioning of metro rail at a cost of about Rs 6,500 crore, while the multimodal transport system would be implemented in four subsequent phases after studying its need.

The KUIDC has already shortlisted six agencies to conduct the study and the project will be awarded to one among them.
On completion of the survey, the city roads would be categorised in three zone - heavy traffic corridor, medium traffic corridor and light traffic corridor and the modes of transport would be decided on the basis of this categorisation.
The survey and planning is designed to meet the city's traffic requirement over the next 25 years. He elaborated that mono rail and electric buses apart from the regular buses would act as feeder lines to the metro rail. "Our intention is to save Rs 15,000 crore over the next seven years, so we should ensure that the metro rail functions well. But at the same time we should learn from the mistakes of metro rail in Kolkata which sustained losses when they allowed buses and metro rail service to operate together," he said.

The BMRTL is setting up 36 stations in the first phase of construction to meet the requirement of the city. Several points have been identified to construct stations. Interchanges will be provided at the existing railway stations in the city. "Provision of interchange will be made near Byappanahalli, Yeshwanthpur and the City Railway Station in the first phase, while stations like Malleshwaram and Kengeri will be included in the second phase," said Srivastava.