HSRL is not viable

HSRL is not viable
By S Praveen Dhaneshkar,D H News Service,Bangalore:

While the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Chief Dr E Sreedharan has voiced his opposition to scrapping of the HSRL (High Speed Rail Link) to the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA), Prof M N Sreehari, Advisor to the State government for Traffic, Transport and Infrastructure, and expert member, ABIDe (Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure Development) says the government should not patronise what he calls, an uneconomic and non-viable project like the HSRL.

Speaking to Deccan Herald here on Wednesday, Prof Sreehari questioning the need to go in for several multi-modal options for BIA said, “When a very well laid 6 lane road is available with 4 lane service roads, the exorbitant cost for HSRL is 3,800 crore (130 crore/km) and another 2,500 crore for elevated expressway, etc just to cater to one destination point, i.e. BIA, is not worth it.”

Uneconomical

He further said that for an estimated 11 million annual passengers (in an average 30,000 passengers per day and 1,500 passengers per hour, distributed round the clock), such an uneconomic expenditure is unwarranted and instead suggested a monorail as more preferable as it is economical to operate (35 kms at a cost of 85 crore/km), based on demand.
“It is better not to waste so much of money from the State exchequer on this cause, when we have other priorities like water supply, sewage, power, road widening, etc. The government can also consider the more viable option to run trains (without any expenditure) with suitable augmented frequency on the existing rail corridor upto Chikkaballapur and halt at Yerthaganahalli/Doddajala, near the BIA trumpet interchange and integrate it with BMTC bus transport,” Prof Sreehari added.