The Hindu : Karnataka News : Centre puts brakes on Mysore Bus Rapid Transport System

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Friday, Mar 28, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Centre puts brakes on Mysore Bus Rapid Transport System

R. Krishna Kumar

Authorities seek additional details on traffic studies

The project was technically cleared in March 2007
Estimated cost of the project revised to Rs. 352.83 crore

MYSORE: The proposed Bus Rapid Transport System (BRTS) for Mysore, which was technically cleared in March 2007, has been deferred by the Central Sanctioning Monitoring Committee (CSMS) of the Ministry of Urban Development.

The Detailed Project Report (DPR) was submitted by the authorities after a feasibility report was prepared by the Rail India Technical and Economic Services (RITES) and Infrastructure Development Corporation Karnataka Ltd (IDECK) last year.

The CSMS is authorised by the Ministry to appraise and sanction projects costing up to Rs. 500 crore. The estimated cost of BRTS for Mysore was pegged at Rs. 545.71 crore, which was revised to 352.83 crore. The project was to be implemented by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), and officials here say the sanctioning authorities have issued fresh guidelines and sought additional details pertaining to traffic studies to assess the viability of the project.

Officials here could not confirm the reason for the project being deferred though BRTS has been cleared for several other cities. However, the CSMS has approved the project to develop transport infrastructure in Mysore at a cost of Rs. 85.25 crore and has already released the first instalment of Rs. 68.2 crore.

Guidelines

Sources said some of the project reports were not in accordance with the revised guidelines issued by the Ministry of Urban Development according to which a city is required to prepare overall transport and mobility plan, which should integrate transport and land use plan and spell out the projected mobility needs.

An integrated land use and transport plan is a pre-requisite for securing funds from the Government of India for mass transport system and the DPR should consist of an overall summary of the project, transport trends, alternative strategies, choice of strategy and its justification, brief description of the proposed network.

A profile of the city with a brief overview in terms of its growth, economy, spatial structure and trends future perspectives on the growth, urban land use structure, employment distribution by traffic zones, activity locations like business areas, university, hospitals, transport terminals, etc., need to be mentioned.

Revised norms

The revised norms for BRTS also lays stress on evaluation of various alternative technologies to solve the existing problems with cost benefit analysis, technical feasibility including evaluation of lowest cost options like traffic management, rationalization etc and the rationale for choosing a particular technology or system.

The revised norms runs into 14 sections and covers all aspects of mass rapid transport system.

The IDECK report submitted to the Union Ministry of Urban Development had incorporated topography survey, speed and delay survey, road network inventory survey, direction-wise classification of traffic volume, parking survey and socio-economic impact assessment. In addition, four corridors too had been identified for the launch of BRTS including Yelwala to Metagalli, KRS to Kadakola, Bogadi to Mahadevapura, Srirangapatana to Hudgur Cross and 45 km stretch along the Outer Ring Road.

However, the KSRTC which was identified as the nodal agency to implement the BRTS project, is in the dark about the fate of the project though it has been more than five months since the CSMS deferred any decision on it.

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