Govt gets Skybus rolling: Panel to study feasibility

It’s a poor start for what is being touted as the ideal transport for fast- growing metros — delayed as it is by a whole year.It h...

It’s a poor start for what is being touted as the ideal transport for fast- growing metros — delayed as it is by a whole year.

It has taken that long for the Centre to set up a committee to study the feasibility of “Skybus metro service” for cities, announced by Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee in Goa last year. The project was seconded by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam who hailed it as an ideal alternative transport system for fast-growing metros.

The Urban Development Ministry, which was asked by the PMO to set up the committee, blamed the delay on the Ministry of Science and Technology which was to name a chairman for the committee.

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The order was finally issued on December 10, ‘‘after the Science and Tech Ministry provided us with P.V. Indiresan’s name to head the committee’’, the Urban Development Ministry official said. He, however, admitted the proposal had been with them for six months.

‘‘Transport and urban development is to a large extent a state issue, every project needs local feasibility study before it can be implemented,’’ he said on the involvement of a committee to study feasibility and financial viability of the project.

The 10-member committee has been asked to submit a report within two months. The official order says the committee is to ‘‘examine the feasibility of establishing and operating skybus metro service (16 cities have been selected), a concept developed by Konkan Railway Corporation’’.

Besides working on the techno-economic feasibility, the committee has to ‘‘ascertain the safety of the system; evaluate components such as suspended rail technology, traversing system and integration of different technologies”.

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It can also ‘‘invite opinion from technical/expert institutions in the field, including outside India and also invite/co-opt other Indian experts’’.

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