[sustran] Delhi BRT

[CP Bhatnagar]

This project is currently hogging newspaper headlines on account of its failure and has built-up considerable opposition in almost all circles. As someone who has been directly involved in this project, let me give my insider’s perspective.

I got involved in the ITS aspect of what was the HCBS project, now re-christened BRT (after I argued in a note that the system proposed was not a high capacity one at all!). Initially, while a DIMTS employee, I had argued that the two terms had different connotations- this was then not accepted and I was told that two were one and the same. 

Later on, when it came to the ITS tendering, I designed a comprehensive ITS making assumptions that it was to be 1. a ‘closed’ system and 2. a ‘high capacity’ system (though these high capacities may take several years to materialize). Only then could we claim that a capacity about the same as the Metro, but at 1/10th cost could be achieved. Incidentally, failure on the HCBS front has also resulted in boosting of the Metro project, though at 10x the cost and at the expense of ruining the city’s landscape. I was told that the ITS had not been budgeted for at all (whereas at least 10% cost should have been)!

The ‘closed, high-capacity system’ could ideally be along say, a North-South corridor since north-south traffic has currently to take the circuitous Ring Road route. Sensibly, there is now some talk of extending the current Ambedkar Nagar (south Delhi) to Delhi Gate to Jahangir Puri (north Delhi). Similarly East-West. Only ITS compatible buses would use the central reserved lanes. Ideally, only dedicated, single end-to-end route, with feeder services.

The high capacity would be achieved through: 1. high-capacity buses (it is not clear as to why Trolley buses are not being used in Delhi as are elsewhere e.g. in Bagota. In fact, electric trolley buses- ETBs should be used keeping in mind the tremendous pollution problem in Delhi. CNG in fact is better used for power generation, fertilizers etc. than for transportation) and 2. ITS similar to that of the Metro, wherein the track length is divided into communication ‘cells’ which directly ‘talk’ to the moving vehicles along it. While the Metro uses the tracks as a medium, in HCBS, the connection will have to be Wireless (which in turn through an Optic fibre link to the control room). With the coming in of Wi-Max in India, such networking possibilities are enhanced.

Instead of this, what was decided was: 1. an ‘open system’ wherein any bus could come into the corridor (possibly under political pressure since powerful nearby area Councillors put pressure) and 2. a BRT system, rather than a HCBS one, wherein each bus would merely have a GPS. It may be noted that GPS has already proved unfeasible in the past as well. The information furnished by GPS merely tells us about the timeliness of the service and does in no way serve as a communication or a networking medium.

The problem has lain in the heart of the DIMTS organization- set up as a ‘special purpose vehicle’, which manages the project. It has government retired old fogies in its roll, who have little incentive to perform, totally out of touch with recent advances in technology. Then there is the ‘patronage’ factor. Civil engineers who have scarcely seen the inside of a bus are masquerading as transportation experts, even while they cannot bring half the excellence should by the Metro in handling one single BRT corridor- the bad signages and re-routing have resulted in 4 fatalities. Hopefully, things may get better after the conversion of DIMTS into a PPP venture.

There is also little concern at DIMTS about taking the ‘system design’ in its own hands, employing in-house experts for the purpose, rather than trying to merely serve as a supervising agency. 

As for me, I am an IITian with 3 engineering and management degrees and the best of experience. But considering the way I was treated, despite some outstanding work at DIMTS, I had little option but to leave.

C.P.Bhatnagar









      Forgot the famous last words? Access your message archive online at http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php