Ring, circular rail lines better than Metro, monorail, says expert

Underlining the mismatch between vehicular growth and road space, T G Sitharam, the chairperson of Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP), IISc, has stressed linking Bangalore to its satellite towns with ring and circular rail lines.

Addressing a day-long workshop on urban mobility here on Monday, Sitharam said short trains comprising four to five bogies could be run on these ring and circular rail lines at frequent intervals to meet the need for urban mobility, which would cost only Rs 100 crore whereas Metro or monorail needed thousands of crores.

In his view, even after the huge investment, Metro and monorail cannot completely address the growing needs of urban mobility.

Sitharam also stressed the need to keep the urban poor in perspective in mobility plans. “Urbanisation is unstoppable but master plans integrated with mobility plans can answer many problems of urban transport. JnNURM no doubt has added elevated roads, underpasses and flyovers. These address only the current issues and should be supplemented with long-term plans to address the urban transport needs,” he explained.
He reminded that bad mobility in urban India adversely affected the GDP growth, which has come down from high nine per cent to the low five per cent. Master plans for Bangalore for 2031 should lay stress on de-congestion of roads and encourage more public transport through additional busses and the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS).

Widening alone was not sufficient but good roads would help in urban mobility, he added.