Monday, June 27, 2011

Trouble on tracks - Metro to throw the city out of gear

Dear all,

A well-written piece in the Times of India (27 June 2011) on some of the impending perils of the elevated metro rail in Hyderabad.

best regards,

C.R

Hyderabad: Is the government suffering from vision impairment? Buried in a sea of files is a crucial document that is curiously not visible to the powers that be. A detailed project report submitted by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the original consultant of the Hyderabad metro project, states clearly that the Secunderabad-Hi-Tec City corridor is "not feasible as a fully elevated corridor from engineering point of view due to steep gradients, large number of ups and downs along the alignment and presence of flyovers on the route''.

The vision problem is not limited to the ignored DMRC recommendation alone. The government and metro rail authorities are also unable to visualise 70-feet tall pillars, 11-feet in diameter standing right in the middle of busy junctions on this stretch holding the metro rail track, even as the traffic would crawl in its shadow, manoeuvring its way around the towering pillars. Worse, despite the government's tall claims, the metro rail is not going to ease traffic congestion. Why? Well, the answer lies in a government order itself issued a couple of months ago which gave the developer, L&T, the freedom to levy a `premium' ticket rate on peak hour commuters, defying the very concept of `affordable public transport'
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