There is a Mono Rail planned to complement the metro. It seems to be a great option. It costs less then the metro is easier/quicker to build and is far less expensive. The down size is that it carried only half the number pf Pax per hour. But, if used as a feeder service to the Metro it can work wonders. There is a plan to build a Mono rail to the areas of Jayamahal, mekhri Circle, hebbal and other surrounding areas. This can be extended up to BIAL also serving Yelehanka and surrounding areas. In fact if work starts on in it in a year, it should be completed in time with the Metro... If only.....

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Expressway to BIA grounded DH News Service, Bangalore: The State government, citing a study report of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), has told the High Court that the proposed super expressway connecting the Outer Ring Road and Bangalore International Airport (BIA) is not feasible. Advocate-General Udaya Holla, in his subm-ission on the airport conne-ctivity, informed the court that the NHAI, which conducted a techno-economic study on the project, had concluded that it was not a feasible project. Instead, a high speed railway link will come up. The advocate-general said the 22-km expressway had also run into rough weather following probl-ems related to land acquisition. “The land price is more here, with each acre cost-ing Rs five crore to Rs six crore and there are some residential layouts too over there,” he said. A division bench comprising Justice Ram Mohan Reddy and Justice Jawad Rahim, which heard the matter, came down heavily on the Central government, stating that it should have thought of the problems when the airport project was initiated. “It is a chaotic response from the Central government. Why did the Union government not think of this?” the court questioned. “The cost is not an exception. It is the people’s money. Bring down the risk. They should be benefited,” said the court. Despite the negative report, however, the NHAI was requested by the State government to reconsider the expressway project. The high speed railway link will be coming up as an alternative. The government counsel said that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation had been appointed as a consultant for the railway project. “Public notice will be issued soon inviting expression of interests from the parties,” said the State government counsel. The State also informed the court that the improvement work was underway on 46 connecting roads to the new airport, and would be finished by Dec 2008. The government counsel also said two signals — at the CBI junction and at Sanjaynagar junction — would be shifted. The matter was adjourned to June 30.

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I personally dont find the Expressway a feasible idea. It is too much investment for a very small cause. Instead Develop bellary road to make it "signal free", barricade it and build flyovers at the Yelahanka Interchanges. If you look it, time is lost within the city,, after Hebbal the road is quite even. And with the high speed rail on track I am not sure if a tolled road is even a profitable idea. Again if it is a PPP then there maybe vested interests that block Hebbal road, so people are forced to pay the toll and take the expressway.

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Extend the Metro to BIAL - the purple line which stops at Byappanahalli could be extended to BIAL, which is about 30 kms from there. This purple line could be extended into other areas so that it would facilitate the IT crowd working in software parks along Old Madras Road and ITPL to live close to those areas.

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The Kumaraswamy Government had introduced a scheme, the 'Transfer of Development Rights Scheme'. In this scheme, the people affected by land acquisition are benefited by having additional FSI/FAR through TDR.

While in theory the scheme was good, it has to be further refined. I suggest the following:

1.) Government pay only Gazetted Value to properties for acquisition

2.) Government has to issue unconditional TDRs for the parties affected

3.) These TDRs can be used for building hospitals with additional FSI, hotels with additional FSI, schools / colleges with additional FSI and even apartments / IT parks as well.

4.) There can be a sub-clause that these additional TDR enabled FSI be applicable only to outskirts of the city and not with BBMP or CMC / TMC limits.

5.) The person who was originally alloted the TDR should have a 99 year validity on it's transfer and can sell the TDR to parties interested.

Illustration:

Government acquires 5 acres of land from farmer, Shri Krishnappa by paying 5 lakhs per acre, which is the gazetted value. The market rate is say around 20 lakhs per acre. Government issues TDRs to Shri Krishnappa with a 99-year validity.

XYZ group (lets assume is a real estate developer) has 20 acres of land in the outskirts of Bengaluru and wants to develop IT Parks and Apartments there. The FSI there is about 2.5. XYZ now purchases the TDR from Krishnappa at 5 crores - because additional FSI is worth much more. XYZ now builds more. Krishnappa now gets 5 crores.

What this does is to get the private sector to indirectly fund creation of public infrastructure. 

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According to the CDP 2015, the current FSI/FAR categories sanctioned are:

1.) Permissble FAR/FSI when road width is atleast 12 m

2.) Premium FAR/FSI when road width is more than 15 m and within 18 m

If TDR is expanded, then IMHO,

3.) A TDR FAR could also be sanctioned.

Lets assume Shri Umesh Virani owns a 50 X 80 sq feet plot in Banashankari 6th stage and his road width is 18m. His FSI is about 3 (premium and permissible included) and he would want to take it to 5. All he has to do is purchase a TDR from any one who has been alloted to it by the Government throughout Karnataka.

By purchasing a TDR, he indirectly funds the acquisition of land for public infrastructure. 

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The HSRL in my opinion is a collosal waste of money as it serves only 60000 people or so who use the airport assuming almost everyone will use the HSRL and this at 2015 traffic levels.

This is one more of those fancy mega projects which will have a pathetic ROI.  Why the hell we need a 160kmph train from MG Road beats my imagination.  Changi (possibly the best airport in the world) does not have a dedicated rail link.  One MRT line touches it and then joins the main MRT East-West Line.

Better to have a Metro system that starts from MG Road station, touches RT Nagar, Sanjay Nagar, Yelahanka and then ends at Devanahalli.  If 4000 crores (at today's cost) is going to be spent, it should benefit as many people as possible - at least 1 million.  1 in 3 trains can be an Airport Special with racks and higher ticket price.

Extend NICE to NH7 from Peenya at a possible cost of Rs.100 crores and E-City's connectivity problems can be mitigated. 

I hope they see the futility of elevated expressways once the BETL road comes up.

Is there someone we can petition on this?

Srivathsa

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This High Speed Rail Link is just another way for some corrupt politicians and contractors to make some money on the side. The cost is estimated to be 3000 crores, which is more than the airport - and this is before the project has started - so of course it will go up. If instead the existing rail lines are use along with some extension from Devanahalli to the airport - the project can be completed more quickly and cheaply. It may take 45 minutes instead of 30 minutes to get to the airport from MG road or Cantonment station but to me it seems worth it. In general in any case the circular rail tracks around Bangalore should be utilized much more than they are. I go from Malleswaram to Yelahanka several times a week - it takes me 35-45 minutes to drive and leaves me exhausted and irritated at the start of the day. Instead I suppose the train will take 15 minutes. What is sad is that this existing infrastructure is hardly used

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Further, I think the HSRL will just add to the existing chaos on Bellary road. And the construction will take years - causing more inconvenience to the people travelling on that road. What `they', whoever they may be - should do is provide metro links to several of these existing stations on the circular rail around Bangalore.

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The road widening is happening up to the flyover. Which means, once completed the road would be six lanes plus service roads on either side. Suddenly, at the flyover, three lanes of traffic would need to squeeze into two lanes on the flyover.

What is being planned to control this bottle neck? Or. as usual will it be left to the motorist to sqeeze through.... oh, well, some more chaos to anticipate.

Madhu

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Some time back there was some discussion that I started about extending metro to bial rather than having a under utilized exclusive rail link here. 

I still am of the opinion that the BIAL should not get any exclusive public transport system. Because it will end up being under utilized. It would be much better to have a general purpose public transport serving the BIAL.  That way we can get better volumes to sustain the system and also convenience for everyone rather than only for the air traveller.

http://clean-and-green.blogspot.com

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I dont know why the government is so keen on PRR and HSR when the ORR is not yet fully functional. They should first work on ORR and make it signal free express way by building whatever is required at each entry/exit.. They havent yet finsihed the work on ORR and have announced PRR. I think we have the tendency to measure the performance of governance by counting the number of project and forget to measure the effectiveness. I really hope this goverment first study the feasibility of making the ORR a signal free express highway and then start working on PRR or HSR.

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Instead, improve the ring roads, complete the Sankey-Hebbal road widening to international standard. Connect NICE road beyond NH4 up to NH7. Extend the Metro to connect to BIAL. Maintain a good bus service. HSR is only a way for netas and babus to loot the exchequer.  

Madhu

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Metro is a huge investment in finances and time.

Your right, Metro for BIAL only cannot be feasible. But Metro to BIAL as Phase I of a larger project might work. In Phase I Metro can be from B.R.V Grounds to BIAL Via, Mekhri Circle, Sanjay Nagar, Hebbal, Jakkur, Yelahanka and BIAL. This will act as a metro for north bangalore too. Later on this same line can be extended from BRV grounds to Koramangala/Indiranagar to add to the existing network.

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While I know that they cannot increase lanes on the flyover - Lane reduction signs and orderly driving can make it smooth. If everyone merges in to the center 2 lanes about 1.5 KM before the flyover and move in an orderly pattern then there should be no chaos. Hope we can implement this method and see how it works.

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the bellary road has two pinches. hebbal and mekhri circle. south bound the extra 'lane' can help vehicles to and from the areas east of the road. this can free up the main throughfare on south corridor for vehicles headed beyond mekhri circle. similarly, north bound extra 'lane' can help by isolating bus stops and exiting and merging vehicles from the main 30 feet throughfare. but any thing beyond the addition of 1 'lane' on each side, will only create a mess. but as santsub said, about 500 meters into the pinch points they should make the extra 15 feet as left turn only lanes. this they can do by using those small concrete dividers that they used for ovals. south bound this can be perhaps right after tarlabalu rd. north bound at the mouth of hebbal there is a bus stop and all. and there are some complexities about which thampan had once talked about.

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EoI for rail link project to be called by month-end, The Hindu Namma Metro's troubled course irks Sreedharan, Deccan Herald Work will take off in eight months, says Sreedharan The 33-km distance to airport will be covered in 25 minutes It will be a premier type of service for commuters Sreedharan, who is also the project consultant for the proposed high speed rail linking the BIA with the City centre, also revealed that if all goes well, Bangaloreans headed for the airport could make it to their destination for a paltry Rs 150 per head. “We have suggested Rs 150 per ticket from the City centre to BIA. However, considering the present conditions, it can be increased a little bit. Passengers have been spending more than Rs 400 on taxi against which travelling by high speed rail will work out cheaper,” he said. The expression of interest for the project will be invited by the end of this month and bidders will be finalised in eight months, Sreedharan said, adding that the actual work on the ground requires close to three years. The total cost of the Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) project is around Rs 3,500 crore. The State government may not have to spend money for the project.

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