Will Pune get a Metro Rail by 2014 ?

Will Pune get a Metro Rail by 2014 ?

Reference your article dated 10th June 09 – “Will Pune get a Metro Rail by 2014 ?”
My comments on some of the paras presented in the above are given below

“There are 175 metro rails in the world today. Internationally, standard gauge is the preferred systems”

What is good internationally is not necessarily good for our country. This is particularly when we have 100% BG within our country operating for the more than 150 years. For our population and rate of growth, BG is the right system from capacity considerations and for performance for more than 100 years unlike the SG system which reaches a saturated crush capacity in 25 years as stated by DMRC.

“In India too, wherever metro project is implemented or is in the process, the standard gauge system is adopted”

All existing metro projects in Mumbai suburban section, Kolkata, Chennai and constructed and operated by Indian Railways as well as by Delhi Metro Phase-I constructed by DMRC are on BG. No SG metro project has yet been completed for operations in India. The projects now planned by DMRC are on SG against the directive of the Indian Railways.

“The standard gauge system has numerous technical and commercial advantages over the broad gauge, which has many handicaps”

This statement is technically and commercially wrong and is misguiding to the non technical bureaucrats and public. The BG system has technical and commercial advantages in all areas identified by DMRC.

“Since the standard gauge was the most widely used system globally, it gave a more competitive option to select imported accessories — mainly, coaches and spare parts, Sreedharan said.”

This statement is again factually wrong and misguiding, the coaches and spare parts are not at all competitive, compared to indigenous BG coaches. The imported accessories like coaches etc. cost Rs 10cr/coach as against Rs 2cr manufactured in India with higher capacity. This has resulted in the need for VGF subsidy and higher fare structure against the countries interest. The coaches imported in 2002 to 2005 for Delhi metro phase-I have resulted in cracked wheels and cracked floor systems, as reported by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG)

“The four feet 8.5 inches wide standard gauge coaches are lighter and only slightly smaller than the five feet six inches wide broad gauge coaches. In Delhi too, although the broad gauge system was used in the first phase, all the new metro lines are going to be standard gauge,” Sreedharan said.

This statement is again factually misguiding. The width of BG coach is 12’-0” and that of narrow width Pune coach is 9’-6”. The capacity of each BG coach is 74% higher than the proposed narrow width SG coach for Pune Metro Rail. The SG track cannot accommodate coaches wider than a maximum width of 10’-6” from safety considerations, The SG parameters for coaches proposed by DMRC for all their metro system are such that in future, these systems cannot accommodate wider coaches in future, ensuring a permanent disadvantage from capacity considerations. The 21st century best in the world Metro Technology commissioned in the year 2003 by BART, in San Francisco (USA) has preferred to adopt BG for their metro systems from additional safety and comfort considerations.

He added that introduction of 12 feet wide broad gauge coaches for metro operations was debated a number of times and was discarded due to the enormous civil and engineering costs involved for wider tunnels, bigger stations and elaborate dispersal arrangements at stations, with no special advantages for the country.

The debates on BG and SG coaches held by DMRC was with those technical experts who favored SG coaches only. Those members who objected to BG wider coaches were removed from the technical committees. The objections made by the technical experts were not recorded in the minutes. Indian Railways had repeatedly stressed and debated the techno-economic merits in favour of BG, they were overruled for considerations other than techno-economic merits.

For more details see blog

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