I will be attending as well.  

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I intend attending this event. Anyone else interested ?

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Dear All,
  Hope many of you make it to this talk, otherwise we can arrange one for praja and other citizen forums interested.

  I had met Ms.Sumitra Iyengar, Director of Scomi Geodesic, the agency involved in this project.
  I did discuss about some alignement issues in South Bangalore and project details.
  They are open to suggestions from public and would be ready to arrange presentation/discussions with citizen forums.
 
  Also got to know from Prof. Srihari about recent meeting, that ABide members were eager to fast track work on monorail corridors.

Regards,
Bharat Sagar

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The Scomi Geodesic plan looks good for the inner city but there is a gaping hole (well gap actually) in the South Bangalore. Bannerghatta road which has a huge residential and office population would greatly benefit from a mono rail either linking it to Metro at say Jaya Nagar or to the Scomi Geodesic's Mono at Diary Circle. If you see the catchment area there is huge gap for Bannerghatta road with Metro off west along Kanakpura Road and if at all things happen the Metro Phase 2 or 3 along the Hosur Road for Electronic city. Would anyone be raising this with the team ?

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I think Metro ph-2 is covering this (EC to Yelahanka via NICE Rd, Bannerghatta rd, onwards to north), hence the exclusion from Mono routes.

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Thanks to Devesh, I had the good fortune of seeing their presentation in a BCIC meeting. How did this presentation go? What was the reaction of the attendees?

I suggest that Geodesic team themselves write posts here to keep us updated on how their direct-to-resident campaign is being taken up by Bangaloreans. Telling us all about the objections raised, or praises made will establish good norms of transparency in the PPP world.

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It was an informative presentation, with a hint of sales angle. ScomiGeodesic consortium (or partners  - they used both words) seem to have done some good homework.

Here is a report in today's DH on the same presentation.

It seemed to be organized by the Institution of Engineers. I was there with Naveen. Didn't see mcadambi (or didn't recognize him!). Here are some items I jotted down.

> Emphasis on a multi-modal transport solution, Scomi/Geodesic will take it upon themselves to put skywalks etc in place for interconnectivity

> Idea is to shift traffic from 2/4 wheels to Mono, not to take share away from BMTC or Metro. Complimentary solution. For example, this shift improves bus average speeds in the process. Autos have a role too, to bring catchment area passengers to station.

> Designed to interconnect with other transport nodes as much as possible. They have realigned to mono to match updated BMRC phase 2 routes.

> They seem to have put in a good effort to retain / improve greenery. Mr Sreenidhi Anantharaman is a Bangalorean, and sounded genuinely keen to improve quality of life. Things like -  they went and counted each tree. Only 260 odd (mostly Ashoka) trees might be a problem in the proposed alignment, and will be replaced 1:10.

> They seem to have quite a bit of expertise, Geodesic from Civil Design / Construction types and Scomi brining in the Mono details. A 'local consultant' helped them with Bangalore specific info and DPR preparation. Consultant's name was not revealed. They are already working the Mumbai Metro.

> Vista / feeling was almost a big deal - tracks are no obstruction to sunlight, you feel like flying in the trees, enjoy the grand vista. Steel station structures to match the dramatic feeling.

> Swiss Challenge method - BBMP and ABIDe are now involved with DPR Review. Bids are yet to be out. Hopeful to start work by Jan 2010. Plan would then be to operationalise the first Red line (19.7km) in 30 odd months (Jun 2012).

> Straddle type mono, 4-6 cars, expandable to 8 cars, stations designed for 8 cars, 142 passengers / car, 3 minute headway (driverless systems can do better, but seemed like they are not planned for B'lore). 28.5 to 32 km/hr average speed, considering the steepest turnes and train simulation software. Each car has its own power house (running on 750VDC), so easy to expand from 6 to 8 cars.

> 29m span b/w support pillars, very little footprint, something like 1.5m x 0.9m for standard types. 1.65 x 1m if pillars support curces. 1.7 x 1.4m if placed eccentrically.

> 0.8m wide carriageway each, designed for 120+ years without need for any surface top-up. Rubber tyres straddle the carriageway on top and sides.

> Track switching is not a problem (anymore?). <15 seconds to switch tracks. They even have 5 x 2 switches used in their depots.

> New alignment is out. They displayed a nice map of mono superimposed with metro stations, TTMCs and other places of interest. I was told by Ms Sumitra Iyengar (Director, Infra, Geodesic) that Praja folk should have a copy already. I'll send a email request anyway.

> Geodesic said something like 'we have a plan to do a presentation to Praja' when I asked for a copy of the power point. SB - Can you throw some light?

Ravi

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Apologies for not making it to the event. Had some family matters to take care of. 

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> Has some appeal to it, so should attract Car users (according to some study, they may not be willing to switch to buses due to perception issues) > Little noise, rubber runs on concrete > Ride costs between BMTC and Autos on a per km basis > Lower need for real estate. Tracks run in the middle of the street, augmenting street capacity. More space needed possibly in tight corners and for stations. Ravi

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Hi All,

The presentation was pretty good & Ravi_D has filled in all the details very well.

A few issues though - the alignments, as previously announced have been changed slightly to allow unhindered construction & improvement in riderships for Metro ph-2.

As previously mentioned, I think these routes will be far more effective in reducing congestion than to run them on ORR & Bannerghatta road as recommended by CTTP. People need connectivity between the many activity centres in mid-town rather than arrive there & then use an auto or a taxi that congest the city centre.

Mr.Srinidhi also listed the no. of schools, offices, hospitals, etc. that the alignments passed through - this was an important observation as it will decide ridership numbers.

About ticket costs, there were no indications. I feel that since this might be a PPP or BOT, there may not be common ticketing for Metro & Mono. They may operate independently, so travel costs may be on the high side.

The capacity of each coach was said to be 145, however Scomi's brochure states that it is 106. Perhaps, they have remodelled it for higher standing capacity.

One gentleman enquired if 2-wheelers can be taken in & of course, the reply was in the negative. Hopefully, bicycles are allowed as it will mean a lot to many - Mr.Srinidhi was'nt sure, though.

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Hopefully, bicycles are allowed as it will mean a lot to many

While talking of scooters, I thought I heard something to the tune of - last car will have an open space for bicycles...

Ravi

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Caught the latter part of the talk.
The most interesting thing for me was a map the speaker showed with the latest monorail alignment, which had the Metro Phase 2 route also on it. Phase 2 has been the subject of some speculation regarding exact alignment, with various, sometimes contradictory news items in the media.
Incidentally the speaker did say that the Metro route would be diverging from the CTTP recomendation.

While it was difficult to make out the details (the size of the projection on the screen was really small), it seems like phase 2 will also, like phase-1,  be in the shape of a cross with a North-South and East-West components intersecting at a point somewhere in the city centre. It was to the right of and below majestic, so could be somewhere near MG Road.
The southern section had a fork, one route going down Bannerghatta Road and the other going down Hosur Road. They join up and become one line before intersecting the East-West line.

Even on the northern part, there seemed to be a fork but I couldn't make out the components. It would be great if we could get hold of this map.
I reiterate that the above description is based on a brief look at a map on a small screen, so I could be grossly mistaken.

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BMLTA map though old one gives idea of some of the Phase 2 & 3 aspects of Metro
http://map.bmlta.org/map.html

On the right top you will see a "+" sign. Click on it and check only Metro and you should see the metro route/map overlayed against Bangalore map

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Mono on ORR & Big 10 routes should improve the public transport usage. People will prefer Mono on ORR since it won't get struck in traffic like buses.

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