Mono rail project seen moving on wrong track

Mono rail project seen moving on wrong track

Experts doubt Palike's ability in executing the plan

Basavaraj Itnaal. Bangalore
For city commuters used to chaos on roads, there is now trouble in the air as the government is planning to take up a 60-km mono rail feeder network to augment the 125-km Metro Rail.
Geodesic Techniques made the proposal on Mono Rail to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) under a Swiss Challenge model and Palike's technical committee, headed by Prof CEG Justo, approved it.
Capt Raja Rao, a committee member, said the cost of the project would be at least Rs8,000 crore and the proposal was found to be technically sound.
But the plan is already under fire.
Some critics think a bus rapid transit system (BRTS) is all that is required to provide feeder services to Metro Rail. Some feel the project is being implemented by an "inefficient" agency: (BBMP). Others argue Palike's rights to take up the project.
"Look at the way they do roads. Even after that if you want to give this 60-km elevated rail network to Palike, we are in serious trouble," said V Ravichandar, former member of Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF).
"Palike cannot implement such a project in 100 years. They are just trying to get it cleared from an agency that they can 'manage' well. Palike has no competence, " he said.

Janaagraha co-founder Ramesh Ramanathan said the project was redundant.
"We have already the Metro Rail coming up. So we don't need another rail project using another technology to feed passengers to it. Multiple technology solutions do not work well. Besides, we have all the capabilities to implement the bus rapid transit transport system, which is cheaper," he said.
Even , Commissioner of Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) Gaurav Gupta wondered why BBMP accepted the project when the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act permits Palike to take up only road infrastructure.
"The proposal came up during the last transport summit, and ideally, a separate company under BMLTA should be implementing the project," he said.
Rao had previously headed a committee appointed by Karnataka High Court to look into the failures of Palike to provide good roads.
He had then said BBMP was ill equipped even to lay quality roads.