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Expressway or High speed Rail corridors

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Written By pravn1984 - 5 October, 2009

Expressway High Speed Rail suggestion Karnataka Transportation public transport Commuter rail

I came across this  draft report about the proposed plan for creating expressway in india. www.morth.nic.in/writereaddata/sublinkimages/DFR_Expressway9202196751.pdf

Although  it is strictly not a karantaka/bangalore issue, i think since there are 3 expressways ( Bangalore - Mangalore, bangalore - honavar, Mangalore-Panaji) being proposed in our state in this report, it  has relevance in this forum.

As the report indicates, the idea is to create a 12,000 kms of expressways across the country in 3 phases by 2022. Looking at the past record it looks very ambitious.

The planned network is going to be completely new alignments ,and in addition to the current national  highways .Although this is is the case in countries like us where interstate highway system was built in parallel to the existing  us highways, i am not sure if it is a good idea in India.Land acquistion  will be a very big issue in out country.

Also,these expressways were built in US because of a powerful automobile lobby because they were the direct beneficiaries.Cars have become the first choice mode of transport between cities.(in a range of 500-100 miles atleast). So,now US is the highest consumer of 'gas'  and highest emitter of 'greenhouse' gases.

I belive we  should not follow the same path. Although, i understand a good transportation system in the country will improve trade( GDP indirectly), we have to see which path we should take.

Furthermore in US, High speed  rail corridor is now being planned  because of higher fuel prices, congested airports and highways.One can access more information about this development in this wiki link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-speed_rail_in_the_United_States

 

So, i think high speed rail corridor between cities will be a better transport option between cities. Meanwhile,we can keep our highway to some minimum standards but should we pour so much money into building a expressway  is the question.

What do you guys think?

 

 

 

COMMENTS

I agree with you

idontspam - 5 October, 2009 - 13:58

Current 4 & 6 lane highways are good enough, most of them need proper interchanges at junctions. It is possible to upgrade a lot of the current ones into expressways very easily. I have always been a proponent of high speed trains as they carry more people and cargo.

We have got into the habit of thinking wider is better instead of making the ride smoother. The NH7 to BIAL is an example. All cross roads can be converted into interchanges to increase throughput. It is wide enough to take current and future vehicle traffic. It can be supplemented by high speed trains instead.

High speed anything

sanjayv - 5 October, 2009 - 15:49

 I would prefer high speed rail to expressways.  However, there is a major advantage of expressways (I think, please correct me if I am wrong).  Moving goods on truck fleets to towns all over the country.  All you need is an interchange to distribute good all along the way.

There is another troubling aspect to all thes ehigh speed thingies.  In our heavily populated country, they become dividers between villages.  Since we are a more pedestrian, bicycle, tractor, slow mode of trasport oriented culture in the rural areas, how does one overcome that problem?

Slow moving anything

idontspam - 5 October, 2009 - 16:46

  Since we are a more pedestrian, bicycle, tractor, slow mode of trasport oriented culture in the rural areas, how does one overcome that problem?

By making them use the high speed railway. They will save on transportation costs by getting their produce faster to the city instead of on their tractors.  
 
We need to understand the usage pattern of such slow modes and what they are used to connect to. People dont use the slow mode to cross hundreds of Kms. If they are then it points to lack of a viable transport option. If they are using the highway as their only means of getting around then we should build them a surface street option. Thats what the service lanes were supposed to do. Highways shouldnt cut off well defined villages. Obviously every house and hutment along the roadway will want to cross over at their favourite place on the main highway. But defined villages on the map will need to have places to cross over and join a surface road which takes them to the closest train station or the closest town which has a surface connectivity to the next town. 

What I mean is

sanjayv - 5 October, 2009 - 17:47

The way the fabric of life is in many places, some people have their fields across what becomes this massive expressway and homes on the other side. Or their water source is on the other side or something else.Often, this expressway or high speed rail means that these guys have to travel several extra kilometers to cross the road.  This IS a known problem even for many of our upgraded national highways. 

Any highway or high speed train program will have to be built considering this.  It could mean building several kilometers of auxilliary road to minimize disruption.  I don't know the solutuon, but it is a serious issue.

High speed railway

idontspam - 6 October, 2009 - 12:21

 A feasibility study undertaken by an international consultant on introduction of high speed trains in the country with the speed of above 250 km per hour would be completed in six months

Read here

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