The Hindu : New Delhi News : Sky Bus promises cheap, safe public transport

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 17, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Sky Bus promises cheap, safe public transport

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 16. A day after successfully testing the Sky Bus technology on a 1.1 kilometre test track at Madgaon in Goa, its inventor and Managing Director of Konkan Railway Corporation, B. Rajaram, today said the technology will be licensed out through a global tender for a royalty and Pricewaterhouse Cooper will manage the bidding process. This, he said, will ensure rapid use of the technology for development of a cheap, reliable and safe public transport in various cities across the country and abroad.

Stating that the technology provides a good solution to all the traffic problems of cities like Delhi -- where he had proposed "an 80 km network at a cost of around Rs 4,500 crores only" -- Mr Rajaram said what makes the technology feasible is that it makes urban transport financially viable by providing travel per passenger as 50 paise per kilometre and allows build-operate-transfer operators the option to recover their capital in just seven years. With the bidding process due to start from tomorrow, he hoped that private participation would expedite the adoption of the technology the world over and in India in particular.

An ideal technology for governments with limited resources, he said it is an efficient solution to the transport problems. Noting that he had submitted proposals and made presentations before several Governments like those of Delhi and Haryana, he hoped that with the private players stepping in the technology will be finally put to use. "For the Delhi-Gurgaon link, this technology has been proposed at the highest level,'' he said.

On what makes Sky Bus a favoured technology, Mr Rajaram said since it has been developed indigenously, it is cost-effective and allows for construction at approximately Rs 50 crores per kilometre -- half the cost of the elevated Metro and only a fourth of underground Metro corridors. Capable of being made to suit need ranging from about 20,000 to 80,000 passengers per hour per direction, the technology can also be employed as per specific needs.

Further, since Konkan Railway Corporation holds its patent, Mr Rajaram is sure the returns by way of royalty -- which would be around Rs 1 crore per kilometre -- will bring in much-needed funds for further research. "A technology should be able to support itself, it should be affordable and should seek to reduce the cost of infrastructure,'' he said, warning that otherwise "we will be living at the expense of our grandchildren''.

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