Like father, like son: HDK quietly plots to scuttle Metro

Will Mono Rail steal the pie?
Govt Ignores Expert Advice, May Freeze Metro Project
The Times of India

Bangalore: Mono Rail, a complementary feeder system, is threatening to become a spoke in the wheel for the Bangalore Metro Rail project.

A team of Met Rail, headed by former cabinet secretary Zafar Saifullah, is guiding the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) and has quietly drawn up a plan to build close to 100 km of Mono Rail for Bangalore, sources told The Times of India.

The plan is to get the Mono Rail project started by January 2007 and complete it in two years, keeping the Metro Rail project pending till then. Or, worse, scrapping it. Phase I of Metro Rail will take five years to complete.

Several spokes have been put in the Metro Rail project. First, the government has applied the brakes on the acquisition of 28 acres of private land to get the project going. Though the foundation stone for the Metro Rail project was laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 10, nothing has moved since then.

The Karnataka government has posted two engineers — Yoganand and S Kini — who worked under public works minister H D Revanna, brother of chief minister H D Kumaraswamy — in the BMRC to put the Mono Rail project on track. Both had worked in the Karnataka State Highways Improvement Project earlier.

The Karnataka government has been informed, sources say, that Mono Rail is not a mass rapid system and that the project would be exorbitant. Delhi Metro Rail Corporation MD E Sreedharan has repeatedly pointed out that Mono Rail is not suitable for mass transportation.

The decision to build a Mono Rail has been taken despite experts sounding the state government and former PM H D Deve Gowda that it can only be a feeder system. At best, it can be used to transport passengers within an airport or run a maximum of 5 km.

Sources said a Mono Rail is being planned along the lines of a project executed by Hitachi for Chongqing city in China.

Expression of interest for the Mono Rail was called for by the Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority, but now BMRC is looking into the project. Five consortia have applied to be consultant for the project. After the consultant is selected, the request for proposal and tender document will be prepared. Mumbai Metro may get city link

Bangalore: After Delhi and Bangalore, Bharath Earth Movers Limited (BEML) has now made a pitch for bagging the contract to supply coaches for the Mumbai Metro project. BEML is in talks with the Reliance Energy Limited-led consortium, comprising French company Connex, to clinch the deal.
BEML has already bagged the order to supply 60 steel EMU coaches for the Mumbai suburban railway system.

The Mumbai Metro, officials here say, requires 53 rail car units; each rail car will be a three-coach unit, which implies 159 coaches will be needed, though this may go up to 70 rail car units (or 210 coaches).

Bangalore-based BEML managing director V R S Natarajan told TOI on Wednesday that the public sector unit had pitched for supplying stainless steel standard gauge coaches for metro projects in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The demand, say officials, has never been better; according to present estimates, 1,200 coaches are required over the next five years in the country. The company already supplies 300 EMU coaches to the Indian Railways, most of which are now running in Mumbai and Chennai.

BEML has a capacity to manufacture 300 Metro railway coaches per annum currently. It has already supplied 180 broad-gauge coaches to the Delhi Metro, built in collaboration with Rottem Korea, and is confident of bagging the order to supply another 285 coaches for the next phase.

Bangalore, which should have its Metro railway system ready by 2011, will purchase 115 standard-gauge coaches in the first instalment and 180 coaches by the time the project is commissioned fully.
The Karnataka government is already planning a second phase to connect the Electronics City on Hosur Road, ITPB in Whitefield and the new international airport in Devanahalli. By 2020, Bangalore will require at least 285 coaches for the first phase alone. A similar number of coaches will be required for the second phase.

Chennai and Ahmedabad are also planning to get on to the Metro bandwagon. Officials say the Centre has taken a policy decision to have a Metro railway in as many major cities, especially those with a population of over 3 million people, as possible.

Natarajan said existing Metro railway projects, too, would increase their orders as and when they saw increasing traffic. BEML also had enquiries from a few foreign countries to purchase coaches, officials added.

METRO MAKEOVER
l No. of railway car units Mumbai will initially need: 53 l Each unit will have: 3 coaches l Each BMEL coach will cost: Rs 6.50 crore (pre-sales tax) l Post-tax cost of each coach: Rs 7.20 crore l Coaches Delhi Metro has got from BMEL: 180 l Colour of the coaches: Steel grey