Kolkata Transportation Thread - (Surface/Water only)

[AbhishekDatta]

some news on BRTS..

Bypass report: 11 months, 1% work
Subhro Niyogi & Saikat Ray, TNN | Nov 20, 2011, 01.43AM IST

KOLKATA: If it's a project in Kolkata, delay is inevitable. The city with the dubious distinction of a near cent- percent time and cost over-run record is at it again with the first phase of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project lagging way behind schedule.

As per the original time-plan, the first phase - landfill to create a green verge and build service roads - was to get over this December end. But Hyderabad-based infrastructure development company IVRCL Ltd has only just begun the work. According to IVRCL officials, they have managed to complete just 10% of the job because the state agency overseeing the project failed to hand over crucial reports on time. Given that IVRCL is engaged for doing 10% of the BRTS project, only 1% of the work has been completed.

"We are yet to get the map detailing the alignment of the service roads. Without them, we cannot progress," said an IVRCL official. The agency entrusted with preparing the map has missed nearly a dozen deadlines. And there is still no telling how many more deadlines will be missed before IVRCL finally gets the map.

full story here

[avishar]

I read that report also but could not understand exactly the layout of the byepass and BRTS.

1.WHere is that green verge coming up?There is going to be two green verges on either side?

2.Why was so much space on greenery and cycle tracks.Byepass needs as much roadspace that it can get 6-8 lanes.Plus a service road and footpath.

3.How they going to construct this after Ruby?Where is the space?

[soumalya747]

Originally Posted by avishar

I read that report also but could not understand exactly the layout of the byepass and BRTS.

1.WHere is that green verge coming up?There is going to be two green verges on either side?

2.Why was so much space on greenery and cycle tracks.Byepass needs as much roadspace that it can get 6-8 lanes.Plus a service road and footpath.

3.How they going to construct this after Ruby?Where is the space?

The BRST will run from Garia to CHRING GHATAas per this news. But as I know this project will go from Ultadanga to Garia.
And also we need this GREEN Verge just to protect our environment and our MOTHER EARTH.

[shoumik]

Originally Posted by Bombay2Calcutta

Telegraph
Trams to bridge class divide
DEBASISH CHATTOPADHYAY AND SUBHAJOY ROY


Vidya Balan enjoys a ride in a first-class tram coach during the shoot for No One Killed Jessica last year


A first-class coach with fans


A second-class coach without fans

Did you know?

● Trams were started in 1880 to carry luggage, not to ferry humans. Horses then drew the trams
● Steam engines ran the trams for a couple of years since 1900. But the system could not be sustained and in 1903 the trams started to run on electricity
● Some tram depots, including the ones in Park Circus and Nonapukur, turned into shelters for victims for the 1947 communal riots

The Calcutta tram is set to lose class. The government plans to abolish second-class coaches and bring them on a par with the more comfortable first class.

A first-class coach has ceiling fans and a different seating arrangement from that of its poor cousin running behind. A first-class ride is also more expensive by 50 paise.

“We plan to provide the same comfort in both compartments of a tram,” said Shantilal Jain, the chairman of the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC). “At present, there are three fans in a first-class coach but none in the second class. We will fit an equal number of fans in the second-class coaches, too.”

The distinction between the two coaches of a tram started during the British era. It continued post-Independence, even after the CTC was nationalised in 1978.

“Initially, trams had only one coach. The difference was created when another coach was introduced around 1900. The British and upper-class Indians travelled first-class seating on cushioned chairs, while the others had to be content with wooden seats in second-class coaches,” said Debasish Bhattacharjee, the deputy director of Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, who takes a keen interest in the history of Calcutta’s trams.

“The difference of fare in those days could have been one or two paise,” added Bhattacharjee, who has written on the evolution of the city’s slow rides.

Jain said as a corollary of class abolition, the fare would be uniform. “The facilities and fares will be same for both categories,” he said.

A tram ride was a true lesson in class differences in Calcutta even during the 1950s and 1960s. “The conductor would rarely wait for a second-class passenger but would give sufficient time to first-class passengers to board or get down. If a woman from the second-class coach was to get down, the conductor there would give a different signal so that the conductor in the first-class coach would ring the bell and stop the tram,” said Sukanta Chaudhuri, emeritus professor at Jadavpur University.

The CTC was a British-owned organisation registered in London. The British started to sell their stakes from the 1960s, leading to the CTC’s nationalisation in 1978.

The first-class coaches continued to have cushioned seats till the 1970s, when they were replaced with wooden ones. The changeover was prompted by attempts to set trams on fire after the hike in fares in the 1960s.

“Trams were still seen as colonial products and the CTC was still British-owned then. So the wrath was natural,” said Bhattacharjee.

The distinction between the two classes was first done away with when a fleet of new trams was introduced in 2007. “In these trams, the seating arrangements are similar in both coaches. Also, there are fans in both coaches. The fare is uniform and similar to that charged in first-class coaches of old trams,” said Pradip Chattopadhyay, the managing director of CTC.

Of the 120 trams running in the city, however, only 20 are new ones

felt nice reading the history

[UNIWORLD]

Howrah, Rajarhat, Bantala will be 3 big bus terminus,
Does anybody know the location of Rajarhat Bus terminus? I came to know it will come up in Terminus Mall, if so, then I doubt for 500 bus spaces.

[Bubka]

Hi Guys,

Long time back there was a study by some consulting agency about ways to make quality of bus rides bettre and to have a control over the bus fares etc..and one of the suggestions was to streamline and merge the numerous Bus corporations like NBSTC,SBSTC,WBSTC,CSTC etc etc..This is sumthin dat only Kolkata suffers from..none of the other metro cities in India have such multiple agencies controlling buses..The multiplicity of fares is also another outcome of dis form of administration...Has there been any progress on this front???

[BengaliTiger]

Originally Posted by UNIWORLD

Howrah, Rajarhat, Bantala will be 3 big bus terminus,
Does anybody know the location of Rajarhat Bus terminus? I came to know it will come up in Terminus Mall, if so, then I doubt for 500 bus spaces.

There is an inter-city bus terminus (proposed) in AA - II D, the road behind City Center, last plot alongside rajarhat road.

[studdmanster]

okkk....

[khatbhej]

Originally Posted by BengaliTiger

West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation will introduce GPS based real time positions of AC Volvo Buses on display boards in the Bus stops. Such Display boards has already being installed in Dharmatala L-20 busstand, Ultadanga and Airport. Out of the 60 buses running on 6 routes, such GPS will be installed in 34 buses. The service will be inaugurated by Mr. Subrata Buxi, Transport Minister, WB on Saturday.

All I want is a website which will list all the Volvo routes & route fares.. I think it would cost them equivalent to just 1 GPS machine.

Chhera-fata genji niye suit porar shopno..

[BengaliTiger]

Originally Posted by khatbhej

Chhera-fata genji niye suit porar shopno..

[kolkatarocks]

No-hike diktat hits bus
services Nov 29, 2011, 04.09AM IST TNN KOLKATA: The government's 'no
fare hike' policy has started
showing its adverse impact on
the public transport system.
Already, more than 30% buses --
both public and private sector -- have been taken off road. But
transport operators plead that
their hands are tied. Transport PSUs like CSTC and
CTC, which had so far been
immune to the impact of loss
thanks to subsidy from the
government, are suddenly under
serious stress with the money flow being curtailed. None of the
transport PSUs has funds in
their coffer to carry out even
regular maintenance and
repairing jobs. And it's worse for
private bus operators. With no subsidy, an increasing number of
buses are being forced to lie idle. The funds crunch is so acute for
the government that even the
plan for shifting the Esplanade
bus terminus - an order from
the Supreme Court -- could not
be drawn up. According to transport
operators, there has been an
exponential rise in prices of
spare parts, lubricating oils and
of course, fuel. The operating
cost now is apparently threefold of what it was a couple of years
ago. "The last revision of bus
fare was on August 2009. Since
then, diesel price has been
increased seven times. This has
made bus operation completely unviable. If a bus breaks down,
there is no way we can inject
funds to make it road-worthy,"
said Tapan Bandyopadhyay of
the Joint Council of Bus
Syndicates. "We have already written to the
chief minister, pleading that a
revision fare is the only option
left for us. Otherwise, there will
be a natural shutdown as
running transportation has become completely unviable," said
Bandyopadhyay. A CTC officer
had the same thing to say: "Our
coffer for daily expenses is
empty. So, maintenance has been
the first casualty." A CSTC official admitted that "services on
several routes have been
lessened". CTC chairman Shantilal Jain said:
"The state government has
released the salary for October.
Our financial condition is so bad
that we have to place further
requests for maintenance cost, without which operating services
will be very difficult. But in the
long term, we have to find ways
out to be self-reliant." The impact is quite perceptible.
There are longer queues for
buses at every stand. The
dearth of buses reminds old-
timers of the '70s and '80s when
passengers hanging from footboards used to be a common
sight. "The Left Front
government had promised Rs 2
subsidy against every litre of
diesel. The promise remained a
promise. The new government refused to allow any fare hike,"
said Bengal Taxi Association
secretary Bimal Guha. Currently, private buses take
the maximum commuting
pressure. If private transport
gets affected, the
transportation system is likely to
collapse. Latest study shows that state buses carry only a
fraction of passengers. Of 182
lakh passengers in the city on
any weekday, private buses
carry 41.62 lakh passengers.
CSTC, on the other hand, which eats away a huge part of the
government subsidy every year,
carries only 8.65 lakh
passengers. Given the circumstances, buses
would continue to race against
each other simply to survive in
the trade, said bus operators.
"The transport department is
encouraging unhealthy competition amongst us, by
generously offering new permits
and introducing numerous new
route permits. If there used to
be 12 buses on a paurticular
route in 2005, now there are 72 buses on that route. The growth
is 600%," said a transport
engineer. The result is apparent. On some
routes, there are buses, but no
passengers. And then there are
other routes where there are
passengers, but only a few
buses. "This inequitable distribution of permits is
encouraging illegal growth of
other modes of transport like
auto-rickshaws and trekkers. If
there is a demand, there would
be supply. If legal option is missing, illegal route would be an
automatic choice," said a
transportation engineer. The
transportc PSUs require subsidies
worth Rs 400 crore.

[AbhishekDatta]

Kolkata bus service set to go green
Probal Basak & Shine Jacob / Kolkata December 03, 2011, 0:35 IST

The West Bengal government, in partnership with Essar Oil and Indian Oil, may soon run India’s first buses on coal-bed methane, a natural gas extracted from coal beds and, like other gases, considered a better alternative to petrol or diesel.

“We were approached by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board to discuss a proposal to source coal-bed methane gas from the Raniganj block to run State Transport Corporation buses in Kolkata,” said a spokesperson from Essar Oil. “We are in talks with Indian Oil to put in place a franchise agreement that will enable access to their pump facility at the bus depots to convert coal-bed methane (CBM) into compressed natural gas (CNG), which can be used to run buses.”

Burning gas produces far fewer emissions than coal or oil and is increasingly embraced by policymakers as a "cleaner" fuel for transportation and other uses, according to a Reuters market analyst. It is seen as a "bridging" technology until solar, wind and other advanced technologies come into use.
http://www.business-standard.com/ind...-green/457428/

[niljee]

Great initiative. We have seen in Delhi what a dramatic change can such a measure bring on.

[soumalya747]

Vivekananda Road Flyover.
[IMG]http://i42.************/smzwh4.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i40.************/2rr8b5u.jpg[/IMG]
@Old Mint House.

[soumalya747]

Dunlop Flyover.
Sorry 4 poor pic quality.
[IMG]http://i40.************/125nnk4.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i42.************/ehyxe.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i40.************/k33ynl.jpg[/IMG]

[soumalya747]

Road at URBANA,Anandapur
Just like Butter.
[IMG]http://i39.************/994bkl.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i41.************/30vjfj9.jpg[/IMG]

[soumalya747]

PC connector flyover
@Sciencity
[IMG]http://i43.************/k9w9s6.jpg[/IMG]
@MilanMela
[IMG]http://i41.************/28utvtx.jpg[/IMG]

[soumalya747]

Near Topsia X
[IMG]http://i39.************/281a9uo.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i42.************/dwoym8.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i43.************/htxpxh.jpg[/IMG]

[soumalya747]

Opposite NISSAN Showroom
[IMG]http://i44.************/104rk35.jpg[/IMG]

[soumalya747]

To all my friends.
I made a mistake. I wrongly post all flyover pics at here. So a big SORRY.