[sustran] Chandigarh and Ludhiana Metro

[Asija, Navdeep]

Open Letter to Ministry of Urban Development by the Retired Chief Architect
and associate of Le Corbusier, Mr M. N. Sharma followed by my Article on
Ludhiana Metro. Need your attention toward the issue.



*Chandigarh Metro===*

*Subject: Metro for Chandigarh MRTS*

Dear Sir,


Through this letter I would like to draw your attention towards ongoing
Chandigarh Metro proposal, which once again raised a figure towards
Chandigarh administrations unholistic urban transport policy and their
biasness towards high cost mass rapid transit solution instead of cheaper
and sustainable one.

Recent statement issued by the ministry of urban development has also raised
confusion about giving in principle clearance for Chandigarh's metro project
whilst same time ministry has asked Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab
government to initiate work on preparing a detailed project report (DPR) for
the mass rapid transport network[1].  I would like to question here that how
in principle clearance to Chandigarh metro has been given without even DPR?
Please clarify the same.

Chairman, Delhi Metro, Mr E. Shridharan on his statement to press already
raised an issued on the viability, safety and carrying capacity of Monorail
said for a city like Chandigarh it will be a totally unviable followed by
his suggestion to adopt something road based solutions for MRTS like BRT.
(Annex A)

Expert Committee on Chandigarh (MRTS) in their meeting held on 12th January
2010 under the chairmanship of Mr M Ramchandaran, Secretary (Urban
Development), Government of India clearly ruled out the option of Monorail
as suggested by M/s RITES in its  report (August 2006). This means if
monorail is not viable how metro can be viable and further spending money on
Chandigarh Metro DPR is shear wastage of Public money. Interestingly other
recommendations by the expert committee like providing adequate connectivity
for cyclist and pedestrian needs to be scaled up has not been even touched
so far. It seems that Chandigarh Administrations only prefer a high cost
solution.

 As per the feasibility report by RITES on Mass Rapid Transit System for
Chandigarh Urban Complex, August 2006 for the Chandigarh Administration, the
average journey time using private mode of transport in Chandigarh is
between 5 minutes to 17.5 minutes and the journey speed of personalized
traffic in Chandigarh is about 33km/h. This reflects that the majority of
the trips generated in the city are short trips in the order of 2.5 to 9.6
km in length. Further stress of Chandigarh Administration on metro for
Chandigarh sounds witty. Metro is a desirable option for high density
corridors and with long trip length (more than 14Km). City where average
trip length is less than 4-5 km and maximum traffic demand estimated by the
year 2041 is 30,000 PPHPD, does not justify metro. However Special systems
like those in Bogotá (Columbia) already carrying as many passengers as metro
systems (40,000 PPHPD) has not been even considered.

In the recent report by RITES on “Comprehensive Mobility Plan for Chandigarh
Urban Complex” it has been found that in Chandigarh despite of the high
personalized motor transport still 76% passengers are dispersing through
city buses.  Which is another clear indication that, this dependency on bus
transit is not going to change, even if we spent crores of rupees on
luxurious metro.

In the light of above stated facts you may kindly find it appropriate to get
the issue re-examined by a panel of experts before starting on a gigantic
unviable and unsustainable venture of metro as the MRTS for Chandigarh.

Regards,

M.N.Sharma
------------------------------

[1] http://www.projectsmonitor.com/detailnews.asp?newsid=15366


https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0ByJBNNLeE-WnNjQ2ZTcwNDMtZGVkOC00NDczLWFmNmMtMmU2ZTkwYjhhNjI0&hl=en&authkey=CKG0zeQM

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0ByJBNNLeE-WnNzhjNGFkZDgtYTkwNi00MjA2LWE2YmItNzNkMGI4MTJlNTdm&hl=en&authkey=CIeTwYQK

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0ByJBNNLeE-WnNzhjNGFkZDgtYTkwNi00MjA2LWE2YmItNzNkMGI4MTJlNTdm&hl=en&authkey=CIeTwYQK


*Ludhiana Metro====*

*Oh Come on-Reconsider..*

*Navdeep Asija*

*
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0ByJBNNLeE-WnMGE5ODUyNTUtNDFiOS00OWYyLWFlM2UtMTIzOWNkMjAyYTg1&hl=en&authkey=CNnCq4UI
*

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