Bharat Rakshak

nachiket, I know monorail and metro projects better than a lot of people on this forum

Two Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) that would be used to build the underground section of Metro Rail have arrived from China. The process of transporting the machines, which were shipped to the Chennai port as five to six separate segments, to the launch sites has commenced.

In due course, nine more machines would arrive in the city and all 11 TBMs would be deployed simultaneously to build the 24-km underground section of the Metro Rail network over the next three years.

To minimise the impact on traffic, the components are being transported at night. Shenoy Nagar Park, which is one of the five TBM launch sites, received its first consignment on Friday.

Chennai Metro Rail Limited Managing Director K. Rajaraman said work on building the launch shafts (through which the TBM would be eased to a depth of nine metre beneath the ground) is on in many locations. “Apart from Shenoy Nagar and Washermenpet, such shafts would be built in May Day Park in Chintadripet, Nehru Park in Poonamallee High Road and Saidapet. The component assembling and operational trial of the TBMs would go on simultaneously,” he said.

Full-fledged underground tunnelling is expected to begin around mid-February, he added.

30-storey tall

Each TBM weighs around 140 tonnes. The entire assembly stretches to a length of nearly 90 metre. When placed vertically, it would be as tall as a 30-storey building.

TBMs are specially designed machinery used to build tunnels with a circular cross-section. They are deployed especially in urban settings where ground excavations can lead to large-scale disruptions.

Each TBM has one or two large metal cylinders (shields) mounted on a trailing support mechanism. The front of the shield has a rotating cutting wheel, which will do the tunnelling.

Large-scale diversions, such as the one that came into effect in Anna Nagar, would be in place in at least 19 other locations. Sanjay Arora, Additional Commissioner of Police – Traffic (in-charge) says: “We are preparing for a long-haul scenario. Each location where an underground station is set to come up will be blocked for more than a year after the area-specific diversion plan kicks in.”

Elaborate measures would be put in place for collection, transfer and disposal of an estimated 1.85 million metric cube of excavated soil. Nearly four lakh truck trips would be required in a span of 4-5 years, which translates to 218 trips per day. “We have been allotted several abandoned stone quarries beyond Tambaram,” Mr.Rajaraman says.

At its peak, the Metro Rail tunnelling operation would churn out enough debris to rival the amount of solid waste generated by the city.

Apart from logistical issues, there are also a number of concerns regarding the proposed permanent changes to entry/exit arrangements at major mass-transit systems near underground Metro stations. For example, station floor plans reveal that the Central Metro Station, which would be the largest in the city, would alter approaches to at least four modes of transport – Central railway station, Park MRTS station, Moore Market suburban station and public transit buses.

Experts say that many of these approaches have not been well thought out.

Elaborate measures would be put in place for collection, transfer and disposal of an estimated 1.85 million metric cube of excavated soil. Nearly four lakh truck trips would be required in a span of 4-5 years, which translates to 218 trips per day. “We have been allotted several abandoned stone quarries beyond Tambaram,” Mr.Rajaraman says.

The Chennai Monorail network was supposed to be constructed rapidly and branch out into the city's booming suburbs. A 2014 deadline was set for the operational inauguration of at least one of the four lines in the 111-km long Phase-I.

But the lack of enough eligible participants in the bidding process and the subsequent decision to float a new tender for the project have come as temporary stumbling blocks. Many experts say that the eligibility criteria set by the government in the initial tender were too ambitious. .

The original Request For Quotation (RFQ) document of the global tender, which was initiated on August 15, says that in order to pre-qualify, a participating consortium/company should have been awarded an urban rail project (suburban, metro, monorail or tramway) with a minimum route length of 37-km within the last three years. Since awarding of the contract alone was sufficient, the project need not be operational.

Following the pre-bid meeting on September 8, the minimum route length required was changed to 25 km. An additional clause was added to allow those who had built a 12-km monorail line (not any urban rail project), which had also begun commercial operation, to participate.

A senior executive of a prominent monorail manufacturer, which was part of the bidding process, said that the bigger problem was the condition that the projects should have been awarded or constructed under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. One of the first monorail networks in the world to be built under a PPP model is coming up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where an extensive monorail system is being built ahead of the 2014 FIFA football world cup.

The only city where a monorail line is under construction in India is Mumbai, where it is being built under what is called an EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract. There are simply not enough monorail systems in the world that have been built under the PPP model. Official sources said that though over 15 entities initially elicited interest, a mere three qualified.

The monorail company executive said that some people were rendered eligible to participate only because of change in tender conditions. “A lot of things went wrong with the tender,” he said.

“I think senior members in the government sensed something was amiss. The Metropolitan Transport Corporation Managing Director (the nodal officer for the project) was transferred in a week after the government decided to float a new tender,” he added. Senior officials in the monorail cell were also shunted out overnight.

A senior government official said that the Finance Department is reviewing the new tender to be floated. “The Empowered Monorail Committee would take a decision shortly,” he added. The eligibility criteria are expected to be tweaked a bit.

There would also be several costs and benefits associated with Chennai's decision to go in for a PPP model. Unlike Mumbai's EPC model, where the city would own the monorail lines but the operator would be paid a monthly fee to run the trains, Chennai's monorail system would belong to a private operator for 30 years.

P.R.K. Murthy, head of the Transportation Division of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, said: “Under the PPP model, the city has to keep paying back the operator for decades. Sometimes, it is lucrative to invite a private player just to operate after the government builds the infrastructure.”

N. S. Srinivasan, former director, National Transportation Planning and Research Centre, said: “The government has to ensure there are adequate safeguards. It should have a say in, for example, the train frequency, the fare structure and the service quality.”

SS, what are those big pillars in the middle of the road in Saidapet to Guindy meant for? monorail?

Traffic in chennai is better than blr, but that's not saying much. we also have to deal with dust and heat on the road, so it evens out. Roads are very constricted and there is no hope of expanding it inside the city.

Everyday I would see dozens of cops lined up and directing traffic whenever a "VIP" passes by. Someday a crowd will spillover and riot

SS, what are those big pillars in the middle of the road in Saidapet to Guindy meant for? monorail?

Traffic in chennai is better than blr, but that's not saying much. we also have to deal with dust and heat on the road, so it evens out. Roads are very constricted and there is no hope of expanding it inside the city.

Everyday I would see dozens of cops lined up and directing traffic whenever a "VIP" passes by. Someday a crowd will spillover and riot

Meanwhile my childhood playing area, Thir Vi Ka Park in Shenoy Nagar has been totally damaged. I feel atleast Bengaluru the ORR, NICE road and newer sections are better planned than the outskirts of Chennai like, ECR, OMR etc. Alternate roads are few and all the side roads are 20 feet wide, when houses come up only the main road can be used, 1 car gets parked and these roads are blocked.

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) Managing Director E. Sreedharan has urged the State government to pursue the Phase-II expansion of the Chennai metro rail network. Observing that there has been a “violent shift” in policy ever since the new government came to power in the State, he said that the plan to cover the entire city with a monorail system is “misguided”.

In a letter to the Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, Mr. Sreedharan said that though three possible corridors have already been identified by DMRC, which is the principal consultant for the Chennai Metro project, the official go-ahead for starting the detailed project report (DPR) for the next phase is still awaited. (In the first phase, two corridors totalling 45.08 km are being built in the city).

DMRC has also submitted a DPR for extending Corridor-I from Washemenpet to Wimco Nagar, a distance of nine km, at an estimated cost of Rs.2,240 crore on December 20, 2010. “It is understood that for want of a directive from the State government, CMRL has not processed this extension, though badly needed, to the Government of India for inclusion in Phase-I,” he said.

“Chennai has a population of over eight million. For this level of population, a large metro network is inevitable as the backbone of the public transport system. Monorail can, at best, only function as a feeder system,” Mr.Sreedharan, who is set to retire this month, said.

In first-of-its kind in the country, Delhi Metro has constructed two underground substations here that will feed power to the high speed Airport Metro Express and plans to build nine such substations for its upcoming phase-III project.

"The substation, which is six metre below the ground, has already started feeding the Airport Line since June and would provide power supply to the Central Secretariat-Badarpur Line from next month," Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Director (Electrical) Satish Kumar said.

Japan International Cooperation Agency would continue to be the funding agency for Phase II. The agency is funding Phase I of Namma Metro.

The routes under Phase I will be extended up to the periphery of Bangalore under Phase II. On the East-West Corridor of Phase I, the network will be extended to Whitefield from Byappanahalli (15.5 km) and up to Kengeri from Mysore Road Terminal near Nayandahalli (6.5 km).

On the North-South Corridor, the route will be extended up to Bangalore International Exhibition Centre from Hessarghatta Cross (3.8 km) and up to Anjanapura Township from Puttenahalli Cross (6.3 km).

A new trunk line will be constructed between Gottigere on Bannerghatta Road and Nagavara (21.2 km) via IIMB and Dairy Circle (elevated) Hosur Road, Madiwala, Vellara Junction, Brigade Road, Cauvery Emporium Junction, Kamaraj Road, Cantonment Railway Station, Tannery Road and Outer Ring Road Junction (underground).

A branch line will be constructed between R.V. Road Terminal in Jayanagar and Bommasandra Industrial Estate, off Hosur Road (18.8 km) via BTM Layout, Central Silk Board Junction and Electronics City.

Namma Metro Phase II with a route network of 72.1 km to be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs. 27,000 crore by 2017.

After seeing the world's first commercially operational pod system at work at London's Heathrow airport, the Punjab government in India has begun to build the world’s largest urban Passenger Rapid Transport (PRT) system in Amritsar.

The 3.3-kilometer elevated guideway will cut 30 minutes off current journey times at prices similar to existing auro-rickshaws and taxis, according to Ultra Fairwood, the British company which designs, constructs and operates pod PRT solutions.

During religious festival days around 500,000 people visit Amritsar's Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine, and the route from the railway and bus stations to the temple can become packed.

This is where, by 2014, a network of "ultra pods" will be in place -- rubber-tired, electric battery-powered vehicles capable of carrying four passengers and luggage.

These pods are driver-less, computer-driven, zero-emission vehicles that use one third the energy of a car and are nearly silent.
"The [Amritsar] pod system can carry up to 100,000 passengers a day on a two-mile elevated guide-way in over 200 specialist vehicles between seven stations, making it the world’s largest PRT system to date," said representatives at Ultra Fairwood.

Having broken ground in Amritsar on December 12, Ultra Global PRT said it's in discussions with authorities in other Asian cities that suffer from major transportation infrastructure issues.
“In one city, by installing a PRT system we could potentially reduce a current journey of up to one hour in peak hours to around seven minutes. In another country we may be able to reduce the number of cars on a major city’s streets by up to 20 percent," said Ultra Fairwood’s CFO and deputy CEO Alan Moore.

“Research has shown that by 2020, there could be between 50 to over 600 PRT system installations worldwide.”

The E Sreedharan led panel has opined against PPP in urban transport infra projects. Having worked on two such projects myself, I can't find myself disagreeing with them.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatime ... -transport

Metro Rail will start laying tracks for the Koyambedu to St. Thomas Mount stretch this month, marking significant progress in phase I of the project that will connect Chennai Central with St. Thomas Mount.

The rails are on their way from France to Chennai, by sea. They weigh a total of 3,500 tonnes and will arrive at the port on Tuesday. These tracks will be used on the elevated section from Koyambedu to St. Thomas Mount — the section that is expected to go operational by December 2013. The remainder of the 22 km-long corridor, which will run mostly underground, will require rails of a different kind.

According Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) officials, this is the first of four shipments arriving for the track work.

Each rail segment will be about 18m long. Fastenings to be used along the tracks are being sourced from the United Kingdom and China.

The very first consignment will be used in laying the stretch from Koyambedu to Vadapalani, and the rest for the depot coming up in Koyambedu.

CMRL officials say they want the work from Koyambedu to St. Thomas Mount to progress swiftly as its completion will help commence trial runs by the end of 2013.

"To cope with the fast increasing commuters' pressure, we had introduced six-coach trains last year. But the situation has again gone out of control and we are left with no choice but to introduce eight-coach trains," said a DMRC official.

Delhi Metro had planned to introduce eight-coach trains in phase 3, which will be operational by 2016. But in view of the ever-increasing commuters pressure, it was advanced twice, first by 2013 and then to handle the increased passenger volume eight-coach trains would become a part of the fleet by June this year.

"The number of daily commuters on the Metro network has already reached 20 lakh now and is expected to go up further and that too at a very high rate," a senior DMRC official said.

why pink?

I hate to call out the man, but ERS was the one who sent us down this path. All the planners strongly recommended sticking with Broad gauge 3.8m coaches. ERS even lost the fight initially but he decided to get back at the planners by strapping on the puny 3.0m coach to the BG bogies. Every metro since then has been forced to follow this dimension. As a nation we are now locked in. With the amount of metro coaches we are ordering we could have set a new world BG standard but for unfortunate decisions. It is hard to believe one man could send the entire nation down such a path but it has happened.

Hopefully all new lines are planned for at least 12-15 coach standards. Even that will prove inadequate as we hit the $5000 per capita mark and the entire population enters the modern age. Anyone know what Delhi metro-3 is being designed for? At least you don't get the toy monorail Chennai is being condemned to. Soon to be city of 20 million depending on monorail. Sigh!