The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has published an alternative analysis report that proposes a Metro line on the 19-km Outer Ring Road (ORR) along with an extension to the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).
The analysis which should have been part of the Detailed Project Report for seeking approval from Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, has come about eight months after it submitted a detailed project report (DPR) to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for its nod.
The alternative analysis, which was uploaded on BMRCL’s website this month, was prepared in October last year. However, the analysis, was not part of the DPR sent to the Centre in March last year.
The Centre, was not happy with the DPR as it was not in line with the New Metro Policy of 2017 that encourages private-public partnership in Metro construction. The Centre had also directed all states to compulsorily come up with an alternative analysis for studying the possibility of other cheaper mobility options such as dedicated bus lanes or monorail.
The BMRCL had conducted the analysis through consultancy firm iDeCK. The 91-page Alternative Analysis shows that the consultancy firm studied five mobility options before concluding that Metro is the most feasible project for both the ORR and the fast-growing Airport, which is about 35-km away from the City.
The study analysed various transit systems including, Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), Monorail, Metro Lite – elevated metro system (six- coach trains running at 3-minute headway) and Heavy Metro (8-coach trains at 3-minute headway). Various parameters which were considered for the analysis includes mobility effects, conceptual engineering effect, cost of the project, environmental, and social impact were considered for evaluation.
According to the study on the Outer Ring Road Line, around 4.5 lakh employees are working in tech parks and other companies on the corridor. Moreover, as per estimations, an additional 30 million square feet would be available for occupancy, which in turn projects eight lakh working population by the coming year. Due to the growing intra-city traffic, the Outer Ring Road (ORR) is under tremendous pressure and frequently faces traffic congestions resulting in low speeds and high travel times.
Hence, considering the mobility and traffic trends, the report analyses that required travel demand for the ORR corridor is 33,709 PHPDT (peak hour peak directional traffic) by 2041 and that the BRTS and Monorail cannot meet them.
“Metro rail system is a medium-capacity transit system having the passenger throughput between 20,000 PHPDT and 60,000 PHPDT, while the required travel demand for this corridor is 33,709 PHPDT, which clearly indicates that the metro system can easily fulfil the required travel demand for this corridor”, states the report. Also, this system is more familiar with Indian conditions and many cities are having this system. This system offers interoperability with existing mass transit systems in the city. Hence, the metro rail system is perfectly fit for this corridor,” the report added.
Considering the massive capacity of Heavy Metro system and the population in the city, the report analyses that the system would remain underutilised. Moreover, It has also got the disadvantages of higher land take, heavier civil structures, and heavy cost, added the report.
The analysis has given the highest score of 87.5 to the Metro rail system (out of 100) and monorail got the least score of 53.5