Printed from Sky Bus, not Metro, tailor-made for Indian cities: Inventor 9 Feb 2010, 1319 hrs IST, IANS Topics: Metro rail Konkan railway 15 rail technologies sky bus NEW DELHI: The Sky Bus is tailor-made for congested Indian cities and is a safer and better option than Metro Rail, according to B Rajaram, inventor of the Sky Bus and former managing director of Konkan Railway. Significantly, Rajaram, who developed the Sky Bus — a twin-coach module that combines the strength of a steel coach with the flexibility of a bus — said he did it "at a tiny fraction of what it would have cost the government to develop it, which is anywhere between Rs 500 crore and Rs 800 crore". The biggest advantage of a patented technology like the Sky Bus is that it remains the most cost-effective alternative at Rs 60-75 crore per route km as compared to Rs 215 crore for the Metro and Rs 400 crore for the underground Metro, at current costs, according to available data. The Sky Bus can potentially carry six million passengers daily, or 80,000 hourly, in any direction. "The Sky Bus pre-fabricated structure, unlike Metro Rail, which requires heavy infrastructure and huge capital, can be superimposed on existing roads, without altering their set-up or dislocating traffic, anchored by pillars raised on dividers," Rajaram told IANS in an interview. It also frees authorities of the necessity of land acquisition, excavations and construction that clog and choke city arteries. What's more, said Rajaram, the project barely takes 24 months to commission against the five to seven years required by Metro systems. "Integrating 15 rail technologies, Sky Bus turns the conventional approach on its head by reversing the position of the carriage and the wheels. The upside down configuration actually leverages gravity to bind the carriage wheels and the tracks inseparably in an enclosed concrete box, eliminating the possibility of either derailment or capsizing," he said. "The system has already been granted worldwide patents and approved for mass implementation by German Tuv Rheinland, internationally renowned for technical-viability testing for aviation and transportation projects like magnetic levitated railways." Handling passenger volumes is only one aspect of the Sky Bus. Another variant, the Sky Con, can be integrated with ports, railways and roadways, to accelerate loading and unloading of containers on ships 10 times faster than existing systems worldwide, he added. A technical panel constituted by the central government and headed by Indiresen, former director of IIT, Madras, had concluded that the technology was "not tested" — which has become a major hurdle in its implementation. Ironically, Indiresen also observed: "If very strict standards that some want to apply in this case (Sky Bus) had been applied in the case of Stephenson's Rocket Engine, the world would never have seen railways at all. We cannot live on borrowed technology for ever and should learn to develop our own inventions and, for that reason, learn to place confidence in Indian technology." "Why single out the Sky Bus as 'untested'," asked Rajaram, "when a 'tested technology' like Metro Rail has been involved in a spate of accidents, injuring more than 200 people. Derailments and collisions over the past decade have also claimed 1,300 lives. Does it follow that train travel be outlawed as unsafe though the technology is proven? "Similarly, were 'high-tech' Germany coaches disowned after uncoupling four or five times at low speeds within 20 days of their being introduced on the Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi Express in the late 1990s?" Rajaram asked. Another panel headed by former president APJ. Abdul Kalam — as then prime minister's principal scientific advisor — had certified the technology as being safer than railways. Sky Bus can be designated under the Tramway Act instead of the Indian Railway Act, since it moves along existing roads. Sky Bus is also included in the draft Metro Rail Act by the urban development ministry.

Gravity Powered Urban High Speed Mass Rail Transportation system.


Need: Cities have limited transport zones historically fixed and do not expand or cannot be expanded because of built up habitats and businesses, to meet fast growing needs of urban population. Road based systems have low lineal density and quickly get saturated. The rail based system with high lineal density in capacity, and being rail guided can provide for automated fast transportation, but needs to be flexible to follow existing roads both in line and level to be economical and non-invasive to cause little damage to existing businesses and habitats.
Ideal requirements: We desire for a system capable of the meeting following requirements.
1.Follow the same right of way as existing roads either elevated or sub-way- and not requiring tunneling.
2.No large stations, but easy access from existing foot paths- rate of inflow to be matched by rate of servicing
3.No noise pollution nor any chance of collateral damage if failure occurs on the system while the system should satisfy the prescribed safety norms under UIC/ Indian Rly codes and regulations.
4.The rolling units and rail guidance such that no separation can take place, and there should be no capsizing of the module carrying passengers.
5.There should be no chance of getting stranded of a coach in between stations, no sudden power failures.
6.There shall be no possibility of collision between the units to endanger lives.
7.The entire existing road traffic should remain unhindered
8.Not a single habitat or business should need relocation.
9.Environmental friendly energy consumption thus reducing global warming
10.Level of service:
1.Air-condition and high speed 100 kmph max speed
2.Access should be within 250m from any point on the road and in any case nor more than 500m within the city.
Current rail based solutions do not satisfy all these requirements.

Gravity Power Towers:

Gravity Powered Urban Mass Rail transportation system meets all these requirements with scalable capacity and can take grades too, because it does not depend on rail/wheel adhesion for traction. The details are described in another technical paper with drawings. The estimates covering the cost of a typical project for a city of route length of 100km , operation, maintenance, interest and depreciation amounts, the expected revenues at 50ps per km and the expected profits are worked out.
Energy saving compared to current mode is 94% which is because we are tapping the alternate source of gravity power and the profits for a commercial venture can be of the order of 50% as ROC, after debt servicing and meeting all expenses including provision for depreciation.




Notes:
1.A rolling module is 3.5mwide x 20m long and at 7m/sq.m can carry 400 persons standing.
2.Headway of 20 sec is such that when one unit gets serviced at a station, the service time being 20 sec, another would be arriving to take its place. The access from vertical lifts of high capacity also driven by gravity power tower, can feed/evacuate at 400 persons per 15 seconds.
3.The revenues worked out assuming 70% of utilisation of capacity in terms of passenger.km , even if it falls by 50%, then also 25% profit is assured.
4.The costing is based on 50% being a sub-way ( cut-cover close to road surface) and rest elevated system- there is no tunneling.