Oh - finally Sarjapur road is getting covered. Good.

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Ph-2A & ph-3 routes appear to be a combination of mass transit recommendations from CTTP-2007. The idea may be to explore metro
options along the various routes & to prepare the ground for ph-2 construction work to begin: some provisons will need to be made before ph-2 construction begins, should the need be there for further expansion (after ph-2). Thus, they may be checking viability with DPRs rather than waste time later.

I wonder if it would make sense to kee Metro focused on CBD purely to cut costs, and focus on BRT and Suburban rail in the areas within Outer Ring Road and Peripheral Road.
 

This suggestion is similar to the concentric rings recommendation for bus zones posted by you some years back rather than dividing them into various sectors that cut through the city. It is not practicable as there will be needless inconvenience for people, forcing all to shift from one mode to another. People are known to protest even to change city buses.

Hence, suburban trains need to cut across town just as metro trains need to ply & reach outer fringes. For example, if one needs to go to whitefield, does he have to change from metro to suburban at Baiyyappanhalli? Or if one arrives from Bidadi & is destined to SBC, can he be expected to change over to metro at Kengeri? Commute times & costs for people would increase & this is why all systems need to cut across the city to minimize delays & travel costs. For similar reasons, it is impractical to treminate inter-city trains at 'edge stations', though they can be made to go past city to periphery on the opposite side.

Why have Metro articles not been focussing on the cost and payback time angle? Why does cost and profit talk come up only when BMTC and Namma Railu are discussed?
 

Perhaps because metro is a new entrant & its economics are less understood than bus & suburban rail systems that are almost always
known to bleed (BMTC /KSRTC making profits is an exception rather than the rule). Kolkata Metro is in the red (ph-1 is part of IR), but DMRC is generating about 26% of it's income through RE commercialization in addition to other revenue streams - this has made it profitable. RE revenues for SMRT S'pore & MRT Hong Kong are even higher.

Delhi Metro is one of the few metro systems in the world having an operational profit from the first day. In 2007, the Delhi Metro claimed to be one of only five metro systems in the world that operated at a profit without government subsidies. This was enabled by keeping maintenance costs to a minimum and harnessing additional revenue from advertisements and property development, apart from ticket sales. The Metro also generates revenue by leasing out its trains and stations for film shoots. Due to its increasing association with Delhi as an image of the city's everyday life, it has been a popular filming location for production houses, and several films and advertisements have been shot on board. Producers have to pay a minimum of INR1 lakh (equivalent to INR2.1 lakh or US$3,600 in 2,013) for every hour of filming, excluding taxes, security deposit and insurance.

For the financial year ended March 2008, the Metro reported operating revenues of INR3.053 billion (US$52.5 million) and a profit before tax of INR199.8 million (US$3.4 million), which rose to INR7,237.7 million (US$124.5 million) and INR904.3 million (US$15.6 million) respectively for the financial year ended March 2009.

For the financial year ended March 2011, DMRC reported operating revenues of INR16.08 billion (US$276.6 million), a loss before tax of INR130 million (US$2.2 million), and EBITDA (operating income before interest and depreciation) of INR7.68 billion (US$132.1 million). Property development (advertising and retail) contributed almost INR980 million (US$16.9 million) to the revenue. Ticket sales fetched INR9.38 billion (US$161.3 million), with the remainder coming from consultancy for other Metro projects in the country and miscellaneous sources. DMRC made an operating profit of INR0.48 (0.83¢ US) per traveller. In the same period, "core" revenues were INR9.39 billion (US$161.5 million) and EBITDA INR4.89 billion (US$84.1 million), with the remainder coming from external projects (e.g. Jaipur Metro), real estate, and consultancy.

Source

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From the same article:

The proposed new network of 150.94 km will virtually throw a metro grid around Bangalore city after completion besides connecting key points such as the Bengaluru International Airport, Hebbal and Magadi Road. After completion of all the three phases, Bangalore will have a respectable 265 km of metro network.

So, 151 x 240 Cr = ~ Rs 37000 Cr.

For total length of 265 km, we would pay 66000 Cr in all.

I wonder if it would make sense to kee Metro focused on CBD purely to cut costs, and focus on BRT and Suburban rail in the areas within Outer Ring Road and Peripheral Road.

Why have Metro articles not been focussing on the cost and payback time angle? Why does cost and profit talk come up only when BMTC and Namma Railu are discussed?

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Just wondering what would be the total cost of

• Creating 2-3 new edge stations (through expanding Devanahalli, Kengeri, whitefiield stations)
• And decomissioning City station for use by long distance trains

More than 37000 Crores?

I think its time to start talking about capping Metro expenses and focusing solely on cost efficient surface based mass transit options for beyond-ORR areas. The topic is at least worth a discussion to hear expert opinions to get reassured on the economics of the expansions.

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On the one hand they keep coming out with more plans to make ORR signal free and spending a few thousand crores on that plan.  Then there is this plan to run a metro all along it.  

If the idea is to serve the big IT parks on the eastern part of ORR that Yelahanka --> Sarjapur (?) line can run along the ORR starting from Hebbal, intersect with the Nagavara-->Gottigere line for people who want to go on to MG Road and intersect with the Reach 1 extension at Byappahanalli for those going to ITPL.  For most of the western parts of ORR the Phase 1 ( Chord Road parts) reaches are close enough. 

This either sounds like one of those grand plans to show the people of Bangalore that the government is going to solve all their traffic problems at any cost or it is quite a big waste of capital.  And for the next 20 years the city will look bombed out. 

As SB says - there seem to be different yardsticks for different projects.  Bus stops need to be self funding based on ad space; same for skywalks.  

On the edge stations - that will work as long as the trains are made to run through the city.  E.g. Mysore trains start from Byappanahalli or Devanahalli and Chennai trains from Kengeri.  Otherwise we will have all these passengers boarding other forms of transport to cut across the city which then defeats the idea of decongestion.

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Phase 3 will take a long time, as it is mentioned in various sources itself. Please check this site.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/385678/rites-tasked-preparing-dpr-metro.html

Glad to know that, Yelahanka, which missed the phase 2, has finally got its share on phase 3. Also, since space availability is good, except for Jakkur Aerodrome, it shouldnt be much difficult, But in the next 15-20 years, we expect many properties to come up in open areas, and then, things would get difficult.

I hoped that the project gets started at the earliest, and completed within 10 years.

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Till phase 3 is complete, commuter rail could be enhanced.

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http://praja.in/en/blog/naveen/2009/08/03/again-hsrl-or-metro#comment-35620

Basically, sustainable transport needs to be used wherever possible such as commuter rail and BRTS. Metro is a precious and expensive tool in Urban Transport and should be wisely used. 

What we need is a Circular BRTS between Silkboard & Hebbal, also partially covered by the Commuter Rail if new stations are opened.

Circular Metro should be planned for core city acting like a self trunk and a feeder to other trunk routes.

Map proposed by me for this for reference again here. There could be variation which could be commented more by the local residents of those localities.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zAEF7AqsN_fk.kWllRQ9wSjYA

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