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Fast rail track MG Road to BIAL - confused

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Written By vmenon - 22 June, 2008

BIAL Bangalore PPP High Speed Rail Analysis HSRL public transport Mobilicity Metro Rail

I am honestly a little confused on this infrastructure project that has been "reannaounced" by the government.

From what I have read on this( news releases), what I gather is that:

  • There is a dedicated fast track railway being proposed from MG road to BIAL exclucively servcing airport needs .
  • That this project, PPP or not, is to the tune of 3000crores
  • That the ticket will be in the region of Rs200 per pop.

My confusion/doubts:

  • can a investment/infrastructure like this ever be fully utlised by a airport traffic requirement ie with so many options available, especially the simple cab option will people ever use it.
  • Is this a stand alone corridor..and is it a mono rail or a fast track.

And fundamantally.. for this kind of investments is it not better:

  1. To intergrate it to Namma Metro?
  2. Have the trinity circle metro station as the alight point for BIAL?
  3. Let the track to BIAL essentially be a Metro covering north bangalore and not just BIAL?
  4. On That track have a couple /or 3 or 4 "bogeys" at the Rs 200 per pop rate.with whatever service levels you want for the airport traveller?
  5. Stations are all along that track and ending at BIAL.

Cannot see a benefit or even a commercially viable plan servicing only BIAL at that infrastructure cost. And even if the argument is that it is coming out of PPP and therefore not government funds, there is still the questiion of land alignment lost forever for mass transport , if it is an excleucive airport traffic project.

As i said the beginning, not sure I got my fact rights. Someone know somtheing more on this?

COMMENTS

waste of money and resources.

bangalore-guy - 23 June, 2008 - 08:26

It would be such a waste if the govt goes ahead and completes the exclusive rail link to bial. I have been making this plea that the exclusive rail link be dropped and either a metro/mono non-exlcusive link be setup to bial so that not only the people going to airport but in general people travelling to that area (hebbal, yelhanka.. devanahalli) all can benifit and not only the few air travellers who may not even want to take the train.

I had posted this sometime back.

 

http://clean-and-green.blogspot.com

Misplaced priorities!

blrsri - 23 June, 2008 - 05:28

As we have been discussing, we dont need the airport express. Why is the govt turing a blind eye to other options. A good solution world over might not be a good one for India.. we are different  and with specific needs..this is made more than evident with, byfar the biggest PPP in Karnataka, the BIA!

Sreedharan goes on record saying that the initial proposal for a 150 Rs sounded low '.. we think there is scope to increase it to Rs 250. Even then, it wouldn’t be as expensive as taxis '
What are we trying to do here? Fixing train tickets based on what taxi rates are?

Its easily seen that this is an effort to 'sell' ourselves to the Private guys in the PPP..concessionaries did I hear?
Is the govt so incapable to do anything on its own?

Airport express - white elephant

s_yajaman - 22 June, 2008 - 16:47

Vijayan,

You have all the facts right. We have had a few blogs and comments on Praja on this and most will agree with your suggestions. This project I am sure has its genesis in all that noise about connectivity from your friends down south :). We cannot be investing Rs.4000 crores on a link that will serve just 50000-100000 per day.

This will be the biggest white elephant (and before that elephant is born the most chaotic gestation period) ever conceived, if in the present form. (My benchmark for good planning is Singapore and it does not have a dedicated train to the airport. It is an extension of the MRT there).

Let us assume that BIAL does reach a 30 million passenger/year (in and out) in about 8 years time (by which time this fast tracked project might actually get done!). That is about 100,000 passengers/day in and out. 50000 each way. let us say 60% take this train - 30000. Add 1 companion - 60000 one way.

This train is supposed to run every 10 mins (need to confirm). 144 trains each way. That means a train on an average will have about 350 people. So about Rs.70,000 REVENUE/train. In a good year - Rs.600 crores. A net margin of 5% - means Rs.30 crores as profit. Max 45 crores PAT. Not good enough on an investment of Rs.4000 crores. At 10 million each train will have 100 people on an average

In these projects, the elevated tracks take up a lot of the investment. They need to be utilized by rakes that can take 1000 people at a time and not 300.

All this assumes that BIAL will hit the 30 million mark sometime. They need to relook this projected number in the context of $130 crude and its impact on the airline industry.

Srivathsa

 

The White Elephant COntd

narayan82 - 23 June, 2008 - 03:08

Srivatsa,

 As per your calculations it would take more then 14 years to get back the money spent, considering Air Passenger Nos continue rising, no other airport in Bangalore functions and regional airports too don't come up in a hurry. Some ideas to make this project more profitable:

  • Include Cargo
    Let there be a Cargo Terminal in the city, and the train can carry to good vans enabling quicki transfer of Cargo to the city. This will help therevenue. Ideas such as pre-loading customs etc.. can be created.
  • Connect it to Network Rail
    As they have done in CDG and Brussels (Nord/Midi) ahigh speed rail connects Brussels to CDG enabling the flight+train option. The Thalys takes you to CDG in just under 3 hours and you checkin for the entire journey at Brussels Itself.  This could work well in our context of Tier II cities. E.g. Mysore, Hassan, Hosur, Tumkur...etc. This can be done by locating the BIAL HSR at Cantonement or Byappanahalli.
  • Phased Development
    If BIAL connectivity is why the HSR is on fast track and then use it to its advantage. let Phase I be M G Road to BIAL, while in Phase 2 more stations are built along the way. Diversions can be made on the same track to serve Sanjay nagar,R T Nagar. A train every half hour can be non stop to BIAL (Via Hebbal/Ylahanka) while the others could take the detours.
This way we can make optimum use of the project. 

Dedicated BIA rail link

navshot - 23 June, 2008 - 11:01

I think MG road to BIA link is okey, provided there is good coverage of metro across Bangalore. Remember, metro passes a stone's throw away from the starting point of proposed express rail link. Even then, I'd prefer a metro link from MG road via hebbal/NH7 which caters to general public too. I don't know the cost difference - if it should cater to general public, then there has to be metro stations at regular intervals, which costs more. Despite the cost, I think we should plan for the future and avoid letting NH7 become another Hosur road.

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