Konkan Railway pet project Sky Bus gathers dust in Goa

Skybus a solution to India's transport problems

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BY ARMSTRONG VAZ     

First printed on DEC 15, 2008 IN TECHNOLOGY on http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/263508 (Digitaljournal.com)

On one hand the progress chart of India has been hailed but the benefits have not percolated to the lower strata of society. The Sky bus project a path breaking indigenously-developed technology is one example of the slow pace things move in the India.

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On one hand the progress chart of India has been hailed but the benefits have not percolated to the lower strata of society. The Sky bus project which is path breaking indigenously-developed technology is one example of the slow pace things move in the Indian democracy.

Indian infrastructure is facing the problems which any surging economy faces in its transitional phase. With rapid growth on the economic front, Indian transport system is trying to have grip over the situation, what with crammed roads, overcrowded trains and buses, being a usual scene in the metros and the major cities of the country.

The Sky Bus transport was taunted as one of the solution to ease the load on the congested traffic lines of the Indian metros. That was almost three years back when the railway minister dedicated the modern rail transport system technology to the world when federal Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav dedicated the Sky bus project to the nation on October 15 2004 in the western Indian state of Goa.

But in the intervening period, since October 2004 the project has been caught in a dilemma with the indigenously-developed Sky Bus technology awaiting a nod from federal law makers on whether it should be introduced in India.

"My biggest problem is that the railway ministry has not been able to decide whether the skybus is a train or a bus. In fact, the skybus is ready for commercial use but for policy constraints," B Rajaram, the former managing director of Konkan Railway Corporation (KRC), had said before his retirement in Jan. 2005.

Sky Bus transport- what is that - is that is the immediate question which shoots up.

The Sky bus is essentially a fusion of a bus and a train. Its carriage looks like a bus, but it runs like a train, and instead of the compartments running on rails, they hang below the rails and slide 10 metres above the regular road traffic.

The new technology innovation is Rajaram's baby and he holds patent rights for it in the US.

A second, KRC Managing Director Dr K K Gokhale retired recently and he had these to say about the pending sky bus project which is awaiting the light of the day.

"The Union Cabinet has informally cleared a proposal to bring in legislation. But, the Bill is yet to be placed before Parliament to make it a law," he has said last month.

Contrary to the views of its managing directors, the Konkan railway website mentions that - Sky Bus metro falls under tramway category, under Art 366(20) of Constitution of India, since it operates along existing roadways and within municipal limits, hence excluded from Indian railway act.

The former MD of KRC Rajaram has been vocal in propagating sky bus as the one of the solution to decongesting the cities. "At Rs.50 crore per kilometre, it will provide the same services at one-fourth the cost of the Delhi metro. Unlike the metro, the skybus follows existing roads, thus reaching into the very heart of the city while decongesting the roads. Moreover, it can be implemented and commissioned within two years," he says.

The two-coach Skybus has a capacity for 300 passengers on a single trip and depending on the number of coaches, it is expected to handle 18,000 to one lakh passengers per hour.

But concerns over safety issue have been the major fears of the railway ministry on this untested technology and not so keen attitude to push things and they fear a black lash from the public if something goes wrong.

And the testing of the technology has come at the cost of human life and that's where the concerns of safety have been raised. On September 25, 2004 during a test run, the sky bus over sped and hit a pole- one died and two others were injured.

"The accident most likely occurred because the bogey was heading at a higher speed than it should have. Also it oscillated to a higher degree than we had expected," KRC MD B Rajaram reported at that time.

The Skybus does not really need a driver or an operator. When the Skybus approaches a station, it is supposed to slow down by itself and stop. The brake is only for emergency usage. In this case, the Skybus did not slow down, and the Control room threw the emergency brake which resulted in the accident. The accident happened on the 1.5 km test track in Goa.

Each part of the Skybus was made in India by contractors and corporate's like the Tatas and Essar provided construction material free or at nominal rates to Konkan Railway for building the test track in Goa.

The KRC has spend Rs 50 crore on this project at the 1.5 km testing laboratory at the Margao railway station, in Goa, as the new technology awaits a nod for its commercial use.

"Skybus is the story of Indian industry and entrepreneurs coming together to produce a unique thing," Rajaram had said.

Till then, the unique Indian innovation awaits the nod from the Indian law makers, on whether it will be best suited for commercial use or it will just rust out on the Goa tracks.

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Why Sky Bus is an ideal solution according to KRC:

Follows the existing roads- but does not take road space- and be as flexible as a bus

Have rail based mass transit capacity, same as existing rail metro

Does not divide city while providing integration along its alignment

Be derailment and collision proof- with NO CAPSIZING of coaches- so that there can never be loss of life

Be free from vandalism

Noise free and pollution-free

Non-invasive -requiring the least amount of scarce land space- and not come in the way of development.

Salient features of the Sky Bus

Heavy 52/60 kilograms /metres rails placed at standard gauge floating in elastic medium and damped by inertia of measured mass held in a 8 metres X 2metres box enclosure, supported over a 1m diameter. columns spaced at 15 metres and located at 15 metres distance from each other, in the divider space in between lanes on a road- way, at a height of 8metre above road surface- provides the support and guidance for powered bogies which can run at 100 kmph, with the coach shells suspended below, carry passengers in air conditioned comfort, can follow existing road routes, while existing traffic on roads continue.

Aesthetic and eco-friendly, the Sky Bus can never derail, capsize nor collide- by design as well as by construction, hence is safer than existing rail-based system.

With no signaling and having no points and crossings, it is a unique mass-transit system, which can be put up within two years in any crowded & congested city.

Sky Bus metro falls under tramway category, under Art 366(20) of Constitution of India, since it operates along existing roadways and within municipal limits, hence excluded from Indian railway act.