India Transportation: Trams & Buses II

[sudheeshnairs]

Continued from..http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=137250

[cncity]

Drop a coin, dial a number from PCOs on State Transport buses

Passengers can make local and STD calls for Re 1 to any destination, courtesy Airtel

Express News Service

Pune, April 20: COMMUTERS travelling by Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation buses from the city to other places in the state this summer no longer have to rush to find a telephone booth to call up their families and friends on lonely highways to inform them they are safe.

Bharti Airtel Limited, over the next 30 days, will install public coin booths (PCOs) in the 4,500-odd buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC). The services will cover 30 major cities including Pune, Mumbai, Nashik, Amravati, Aurangabad and Nagpur including nearly 218 towns.


“Around 1,900 buses have already been fitted with the GSM-based PCOs that have a pre-paid facility. Work on the remaining buses would be completed by May 25. Friday onwards, this facility will enable the commuters to make calls to any destination in India for Re 1. Local calls will be charged at Re 1 for 60 seconds and STD calls at Re 1 per 20 seconds,” said MSRTC chairman Sudhakar Paricharak.

MSRTC has entered into a tie-up with Airtel for a period of two years to offer telephone services to its commuters on long distance and medium distance routes. Depending on the response, the facility will be extended to other buses on other routes as well, Paricharak said.

MSRTC has a fleet of 15,500 buses plying on 85,000 routes across Maharashtra everyday.

Mandeep Bhatia, COO (Mobile Services), Bharti Airtel Limited said Airtel will be responsible for the maintenance of the PCOs while MSRTC will be responsible for the cash management of the PCO operations in the buses. The PCO installations will be undertaken across 248 MSRTC bus depots spread over six regions.
MSRTC will receive 25 per cent of the revenues generated through the new service. “Airtel has appointed a distributor who would supply recharge vouchers of Rs 1,200 that would be given to the corporation officials at Rs 980. This would ensure that the services are not disrupted on long distance routes,” Bhatia said.

http://cities.expressindia.com/fulls...?newsid=232624

[IU]

Not sure if these have been posted before..

Kolkata Metro
Copyright Saralhanh


Copyright Tatsuro


Copyright El_chico_438


Outside the park street station
Copyright Soumit

[ab041937]

Time to update Kolkatta metro.

[WillyWick]

looks neat for an old metro!

[cncity]

Originally Posted by ab041937

Time to update Kolkatta metro.

How many stations of the kolkata metro are underground ?
They are going in for a line extension, right ?

[IU]

15/17 stations are underground

They planned to extend the metro further south and then make it go east by 2007. But i believe there is something kinda delay. Probably Suncity can explain further.

Anyways,here is an extension pic..I am sure Arijeetb posted this before somewhere.

Copyright Arijeetb

[cncity]

Double post

[cncity]

[/COLOR]

PUNE: The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) is set to buy 10 Chinese-made 'King Long' buses for operating on routes from Mumbai and Pune that have a heavy passenger load.

MSRTC chairman Sudhakar Paricharak said the move was an follow-up to the experiment of running two King Long 60-seater buses on the Dadar-Pune route.

"We plan to place orders for buying 10 such buses in the next fortnight," he said, adding that the buses would run on routes like Mumbai-Hubli, Mumbai-Indore, Pune-Indore and Pune-Nagpur.

"The Chinese buses with larger passenger-carrying capacity and spacious interiors are expected to cost almost Rs 20 lakh each, which is less than the Swedish Volvo buses," he said.

The MSRTC has 20 Volvo buses running on Pune-Mumbai and Pune-Nashik routes. The MSRTC added 1,250 new buses to its fleet of 16,000-plus in 2006-'07. It has decided to add 2,035 more buses to the fleet in financial year 2007-'08.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/C...ow/1937121.cms

[Naga_Solidus]

How come nobody's buying Tata Globuses for their long-distance routes?

[ab041937]

Originally Posted by cncity

How many stations of the kolkata metro are underground ?

I am not sure boss. Metro in Kolkata isn't the primary mode of transport. So, I believe Kolkata metro doesn't have a wide-spread network.

Originally Posted by cncity

They are going in for a line extension, right ?

I heard it too. Hopefully, it'll restore to its former glory.

[IU]

About a month old news..this hasnt been posted before

New Metro Rail Project for Chennai

In line with other Indian metros like Delhi and Kolkata, Tamil Nadu's government on Friday decided to implement the metro rail project in Chennai to solve its traffic problems at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore.

State finance Minister K Anbazhagan, while submitting the state budget for the next fiscal in the Assembly, said that the project, comprising two rail corridors, would have a total length of 49km and would commence operations within five years.

The detailed project report for the project had been prepared by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and submitted to the government recently, he said.

The Minister announced a provision of Rs 50 crore in the budget to undertake preliminary works for the special scheme. Stating that there had been a rapid growth in air transport in the state, he said the government would soon make an appropriate decision on whether it should go for expansion of the existing Chennai airport or establish a new airport near Chennai.

In addition, the expansion of Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli and Tuticorin airports was essential to handle the increasing air traffic in those places, he said. He added that the Airport Authority of India had requested the state government provide the land required for expansion of these airports.

Accepting the request, the government would provide the land required for the expansions works, he said. Anbazhagan said the second phase of the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), extending from Luz Mylapore to Velachery in Chennai, was nearing completion.

Realising that the full benefit of the project could be harnessed only if it was extended up to St Thomas Mount, the Tamil Nadu government had conveyed its concurrence to bear two-thirds of the cost of the project estimated at Rs 416 crore, he said, and added that an allocation of Rs 20 crore had been made in the budget as a contribution of the state for 2007–08.

[Suncity]

Here's Kolkata suburban railway system map from IRFCA

http://www.irfca.org/gallery/Layouts...geViewsIndex=1

and a Metro/Circular Railway map by Sridhar

http://www.irfca.org/users/delhimetr...cular_rail.pdf

[IU]

inside a Bangalore Volvo

Copyright Mark Prichard

[arijeetb]

Originally Posted by ab041937

I am not sure boss. Metro in Kolkata isn't the primary mode of transport. So, I believe Kolkata metro doesn't have a wide-spread network.


I heard it too. Hopefully, it'll restore to its former glory.

Kolkata metro spans a north south axis of about 17km presently. Except for a couple of stations at ground level remaining 15 are underground.

The extn of about 8.7 km is expected to complete by end of the year. This would have 5 ( out of 6) elevated stations.

[Cov Boy]

Hey those Chinese 'King Long' buses look great!

I dont think Tata make big enough coaches/buses for long distance streches however Tata'snew range of inter-city Star buses look very good.

[Suncity]

Tata Globus buses seem to be getting popular

An advt from Raj National Express and Grayline

[vadi]

this grayline, is it the grayline?
hmm.. never thought this would happen. not that they are some great operators. wonder what they bring to this?

[sudheeshnairs]

Inside a Bangalore Volvo. I like these buses very much and see as a symbol of modern Bangalore.

335 E, from Mayo Hall (M G Road) to SAP Labs, White Field. Distance: 18kms. Fare: Rs.30. (21/04/07, Saturday noon.)

It was pretty good rush in the bus.





335 E, SAP Labs to HAL Main Gate. Distance: 12 kms. Fare: Rs: 20.

[Cov Boy]

Thanks for that Sudheesh, its great to see pics inside the Volvo buses and that things are chaning fast in terms of bus travel within Bangalore. I just wish other cities esp. Kolkatta take hint.