Saturday, February 18, 2006

Monorail to save Chennai traffic?

Monorail in front of Tamil Nadu Secretariate (graphics)

Now a day traffic jam is a big problem for Chennai people. The central government has also introduced the Flying Train in 1998 to control the traffic, but no use; many people like to travel on their own vehicles like motorbikes, cars. For the last one year the motorbike population is very high in Chennai, in one house there are 2 to 3 bikes, even in my house we have 2 bikes. And the pollution is also very high, and in traffic jams, we can’t open our car glass, because the smokes which release for the vehicles, gives us pungent smell and it is also not good for our health. The government was also thinking for a permanent solution for this problem, and it also should be environment friendly. So the Tamil Nadu chief Minister Jayalalithaa recently announced to introduce the Monorail system to control the Chennai traffic.

Formally the opposition has also shown their objection for this Monorail. First we can know some thing about monorail. Monorail is approximately work like balcony train, like trains we can’t change its track, in a track only one train can go and come. Many countries’s like Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Europe, Russia and the United States are using this Monorail system. In Los Vegas the monorail is traveling 6km, in Sydney it passing 3.6km, in Japan this Monorail is running 100km. Each and every day hundreds of thousands of passengers are carried on monorails. The monorails are very safe to travel, zero accidents translates to no system down time, less liability suits and most importantly, No Injuries and Death have registered so fare, it will not foot step from the track like trains. Most monorails are electrically powered, monorails are non-polluting. Most run on rubber tires and are very quiet. Monorails are the most aesthetically pleasing of all elevated rail systems. Their sleek design blends in with modern urban environments. Quick construction time results in less disruption to the surrounding environments, whether business or residential.

In Chennai the government has planned to operate monorail for 490km, they will be construction the path for the monorail at least 100km. first the government decided to introduce Metro rail. The Chennai is situated near sea, so we can’t dig a way for Metro rails, like which was already introduced in Delhi & Kolkatta said the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, so the government plan to introduce Monorail. We can install the Monorail in short days and the money spending is also low. For Balcony rail it will take Rs.80 to 100 crore to constructing a bridge for 1km, for Metro rail it will take at least 150 crore to construct the way. But the money for spending to Monorail is just 50crore and it will take small space for constructing the way. In starting they have planed to take 14,000 people from one place to another place, gradually they will increase to 50,000 people. Not only in Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore are also examinations to install Monorail in future.

If we also have many good plans like this, but the opposite party are showing objection flag for this monorail. They said this monorail is new for India, we don’t know how to construct a path for monorail. We are not manufacturing it and want to import it from Foreign countries and also we don’t know how to maintenance. Suppose it gets any repair, we don’t know who to adjust it and should call mechanic form foreign country. The party is asking the state government like this: the project of Monorail is not slightly introduction for our county, how can we accept this plan. In many countries the Monorail is working as a feeder Service only and can take only 8,000 people. The opposite is asking that the constructing rail path and operating is all Central Governments work, why the Sate government is entering its head. I think that the opposite is also a main leg for central government, if the state government done this monorail project and get vote in coming April assembly election, that why they are opposing it. So totally the Monorail project has comes to the Politician hand, we don’t know when this problem will solve and when we are going to escape for the Heavy traffic.

22 comments:

Shuuro said...

Jeevan,

Such projects are certainly beneficial to the people and need to be constructed in all metro cities. Points raised by opposition have no merit. I have no doubt that some people will definitely use it but will every person is willing to let go comfort of their vehicle and travel in this rail? and also when vehicle in which we travel denotes social standings in our society, can we let go our ego?

ashok said...

i personally think India still has a long way to go in terms of advanced public transport...

Kuntal Joisher said...

I hope projects like this which are aimed at improving public transportation succed.. we all seriously need to re-think our use of car.. its high time public transportation becomes the preferred mode of transport.. better and efficient resource usage, lesser emissions, less damage to environment.

and yea ashok, india is way ahead then a lot of cities when it comes to public transportation.. I can definitely vouch for mumbai atleast.. come here in LA and u will no how pathetic can the PT get!!

Kuntal Joisher said...

no = know
cities = countries

in above comment

Balaji S Rajan said...

Hope some rail comes to chennai to avoid those smokes out of pollution.

Jeevan said...

Shuuro – the rich and some middle-class people only used own vehicles, but the poor and some office going people use the public transports, if they also have vehicles. If everybody like to travel on there own vehicle, we can’t control the pollution smoke, the public transport can carry many people in one vehicle and low pollution. If they use there own vehicle, it will release 10 times more pollution than public transport. So our society should think and decide which is better.

Ashok – our world is running fast if we have hope, we can develop our public transport in good way for our people soon. We can develop our public transport, but it should not affect the nature.

Jeevan said...

Kunsjoi – I agree with u. before the traffic touch its high, we should do a permanent transport for controlling the heavy traffic in important cities.

Balaji – we can only hope, the govt should take the decision. Can wait…

Shuuro said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Shuuro said...

Jeevan,

First, there is no question in not developing our urban mass Transit system, so rails are must. Rich people are few and poor doesn't have many vehicles, so majority of the people who cause pollution are upper & lower middle class people with their vehicles and without bringing change in their attitude towards vehicle as a social status symbol and their thinking towards such mass transport system, there wont be reduction in pollution just by building Monorail, as we can see in case of Thailand for example. After commuting through these rails how many are willing to go through inconvenience of changing their mode of transport to reach their final destination?. If monorail well connects the city then perhaps with the rise of fuel cost, people will be eventually forced to use them.

Jeevan said...

Sure the pollution will not reduce after the monorail comes, I said that monorails did not release smoke and create pollution. My question is after the monorail installed the Chennai heavy traffic will come down? I think people will feel lazy to climb the steps and travel on the monorail, so they will travel on there own vehicels.

Now a days the vehicle own people are very fear to drive there vehicle because of accidents cause by traffic, so if they take the Public transport they will avoid their own vehicle. Shuuro u have any idea to control the Traffics?

Shuuro said...

Jeevan,

By widening of roads, building flyovers where they are necessary, improving city's public transport system and finally making everyone to follow traffic rules diligently.

Anonymous said...

Good one ,Jeevan.

Its nothing new that the ruling party comes up with a proposal and opp.parties to criticize it. Mono rail should be beneficial to our city.And it should be done before massive urbanization( to say b4 chennai becomes another Mumbai in terms of space,property values).
The MRTS project should also be completed for total access to the city points.

Kunsjoi: Dont compare apples to oranges. PT,yes i agree but look at the roads here. How wide and well planned for future traffic.India can afford latest luxury cars,but the roads ?
Come to NY to see what PT means..Amazing.And in LA, u do have PT for commute !

Anonymous said...

:-)

My days(Gops) said...

Jeevan this i gonna be a
"Pagal Kanavu or Kaanal Neer" .. do u think tht our politicians will agree for this? never..
they dun think abt people's comfort, they(politicians)want to make money thru state transports and not thru central transports...

Jeevan said...

Prabu – thanks prabu, Welcome to my world. Yes u r point is right, they should complete this project before the traffic touch its high. Already all roads are occupied by residents and shops.

I can’t read u r name, I think it was written in Tamil, sorry my computer dint have facilities to read Tamil words. I will call u Good Face – Welcome to my word.

My_Day – we can think this project will work or not only after the election.

R Girls said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
R Girls said...

May be if the over bridges surrounding the oppposition party's residence is removed(which was constructed during their reign) and even they are stranded in traffic and has to travel through public transport, may be they can realise..huh...sick political tactics..

Jeevan said...

good solution.

smiley said...

The opposition and all the people of Chennai have to get this system going to reduce the pollution, traffic jams... good photos

Anonymous said...

Never dream of such hi-tech transport in hi-tech India. But they can be tried in remote places in India. It can be tested and re-tested zillion times without any botheration of unruly traffic and street chaos.

Once tested, it can be tested on our computers to see if they are genuine or flake. if genuine they can be roasted on our techno stoves and booked for future testing.

Bah! such advanced transport system should be thought of only when our population growth reaches zero.

Nah! in our country simple systems like cycle, rickshaw, bullock cart are sufficient for they not only have speed but also greed to be the king of roads. Then we have holy cows , goats, hefty buffoloes, the guardian of our outdoors - stray dogs and the eternal beggers.

Let heavens fall and sky become grey, but never think of such advanced traffic systems, unless our chaps walk with military discipline and vehicles drive with clock like precision and our roads are as smooth as Aishwarya Rai cheeks

its time to concentrate on the future, What future..?

Anonymous said...

Very creative,I like it.

Srinivasan Palani said...

I'm a daily commuter in sub urban train for past 6 years.I'm not sure how well the Monorail will suit us.We need a train with good carrier capacity. All the countries you have mentioned that operates MonoRail doesn't have huge population as us.

As far as I know the monorail would not have same capacity as the Metrorail also from ur article, I learnt that,one train has to reach the destination and should return for the next journey. This sounds very odd.It is very attractive compared to Metro Rail but the frequency and carry capacity is what matters than attractive show case trains imported from else where with low capacity.