DELHI | Metro

[World8115]

X-posting from DM thread

Originally Posted by World8115

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Metro by pragtirox, on Flickr

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Vaishali - Dwarka Sector 21 Blue Line Metro by Akshay 30005, on Flickr

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Connaught Place Metro Station by cha., on Flickr

[World8115]

X-posting from DM thread

Originally Posted by World8115

image hosted on flickr

Connaught Place Metro Station by cha., on Flickr

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Delhi metro by Awanish Shukla, on Flickr

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Untitled by Priti Bhatt, on Flickr

[Woonsocket54]

New York Times
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...rridor-battle/

July 9, 2012, 8:25 am
Next Stop, Supreme Court, for Delhi’s Bitter Bus Corridor Battle
By MALAVIKA VYAWAHARE and PAMPOSH RAINA


Prakash Singh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Buses ply on the Bus Rapid Transit corridor as other vehicles are stuck in a traffic jam in New Delhi, in this April 27, 2008 file photo.

Delhi's experiment with efficient public road transportation, in the form of the Bus Rapid Transit corridor, has devolved into a court battle that pitches the city's wealthy, car-owning minority against the majority of road users.

The next step may be the highest court in the land. The Delhi government plans to appeal to India's Supreme Court to keep the corridor car-free if Delhi's high court, which is hearing the case now, decides that cars should be allowed in the bus-only lanes, an official in Delhi's Transport Department told India Ink on Monday.

Delhi's buses are residents' most important method of transportation in the city of over 16 million. Fewer than 20 percent of road users in Delhi travel in private vehicles, including cars and scooters, while about half of all road users in Delhi commute by bus, according to the RITES Delhi Traffic and Forecast Study. The rest use bicycles or three-wheeled auto-rickshaws, or go by foot.

The BRT corridor, which is modeled after other systems in high-traffic cities like Bogota, was designed to make bus and bicycle travel safer and faster, and encourage travel that does not involve cars. It features a bicycle-only lane and a center lane just for buses.

Whether the corridor, which was completed in April 2008, has been a success depends on which camp you ask. It has saved lives, but it has also increased the travel time for car drivers. Whether it has shortened bus travel times depends on which research you read.

Drivers and their advocates are so upset that they have filed a flurry of court petitions, demanding that the corridor be shut. News coverage in some English-language newspapers, particularly The Times of India, has often been sympathetic to these drivers, calling the corridor a "nightmare" and "a volcano waiting to erupt."

An interim court order last week directed the government to allow private vehicles to use the corridor reserved for buses. A final judgment on whether to overturn it altogether is due this month from the Delhi High Court.

According to B.B. Sharan, a retired colonel who is one of the petitioners who wants the corridor open to all vehicles, "only 50 buses plied on the corridor in an hour while the number of other vehicles was 40 to 50 times the number of buses."

Traffic jams are a common sight on the carriageway next to the bus lane, he said. "It is unfair to give so little space to car users. Not a single car user has started using the bus; nobody has benefited from this," he added.

Not everybody agrees with his claim.

"The number of fatal accidents reduced from an average of 9 to 10 accidents per year between 2001 and 2006 to 2 in 2009 on the stretch," said Geetam Tiwari, an assistant professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Ms. Tiwari was one of the authors of the report "Delhi on the Move: 2005," which proposed the BRT concept and was presented to the Transport Department in 1995.

"Fatal accidents involving bicyclists have not occurred in the bicycle lane since 2008," she added.

Dunu Roy, director of Hazards Centre in New Delhi, a nongovernmental organization, agreed with this assessment. "After the BRT became operational, not only have fatalities gone down dramatically, accidents have gone down too," he said.

Private vehicle use is rising fast in New Delhi and most Indian metropolises: An average of 1317 vehicles, including auto-rickshaws and scooters, were added to Delhi roads every day during the 2010-11 fiscal year according to Delhi Statistical Handbook 2011, of these 95 percent were private cars and two wheelers.

Soon, Delhi's roads won't be able to handle the traffic, transportation experts say, making introduction of systems like the BRT necessary. "The capacity of roads in Delhi will be exceeded by 2021 on most major roads and junctions," said Ms. Tiwari.

Convincing private vehicle owners to use public transportation remains a difficult task in India. Car-pooling Web sites have sprung up recently, but bus transportation is widely seen as inconvenient, crowded and unsafe for women.

Advocates of the Bus Rapid Transit corridor argue that the interim court decision negates the corridor's original purpose. "Allowing other vehicles in the corridor essentially destroys the corridor. There is space for everyone, but the concern of minority car users seems to influence the city engineers and traffic managers," Ms. Tiwari said.

Even research related to the BRT is controversial. Mr. Roy of the Hazards Centre said there are multiple problems with an interim report by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), a national research organization, which is the basis of the interim high court order.

The CRRI had conducted a trial run between May 12 and May 23 allowing private vehicles in the bus corridor. In its report the institute concluded that traffic moved faster when other vehicles were allowed in the corridor than when they were barred, but the report did not make note of accidents or fatalities.

"Their report is completely unscientific," Mr. Roy said. He pointed out that in the Terms of Reference the government asked for comparisons with the BRT corridor and mixed vehicle corridors on other roads. Instead, Mr. Roy said, "the CRRI modified the BRT corridor itself and compared the results."

Subhamay Gangopadhyay, director of the institute declined to comment on the findings of the interim report and said that he would only speak once the final report is submitted to the Delhi High Court on July 12.

Zubeda Begum, the lawyer representing the Delhi government's transport department, said that she had not looked at the CRRI interim findings but said that the organization was not an expert on the matter.

Despite the pending legal dispute, the Press Trust of India quoted Sheila Dikshit, Delhi's chief minister, last month as saying that her government "will commission more BRT routes in the city as a means to promote public transport, as a bulk of passengers were 'happy' with the existing facility," but provided no further details.

[Woonsocket54]

Bloomberg News
http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...uts-for-repair

India’s First Private City Rail in Delhi Shuts for Repair
By Karthikeyan Sundaram on July 09, 2012

New Delhi’s airport rail link, the nation’s first privately run urban train service, was shut down for repairs until August-end after defects were found on its civil structures following 16 months of operations.

The network halted services from yesterday to inspect viaducts in the 23-kilometer (14-mile) line, Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt., a unit of billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure Ltd. (RELI), said in a statement on its website.

The decision to temporarily suspend operations “is purely linked with commuters’ safety concerns,” Delhi Airport Metro said in a statement via mobile phone text message. The Ministry of Urban Development expects the line to reopen by next month- end, spokeswoman A.V. Chandra said by phone today.

The 57 billion-rupee ($1 billion) railway was opened Feb. 23, 2011. It has since carried more than 6.8 million passengers and run 70,000 trips, according to the statement.

Reliance Infrastructure fell as much as 4.2 percent to 547 rupees in Mumbai trading and changed hands at 551.85 rupees at 1:56 p.m. The BSE India Sensitive Index dropped 1 percent.

Delhi Metro Rail Corp., operator of the city’s subway system, built tunnels and other infrastructure, while Reliance and partner, Beasain, Spain-based trainmaker Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles SA, paid for the tracks, trains and other equipment. Reliance has a contract to run the the line for 30 years.

To contact the reporter on this story: Karthikeyan Sundaram in New Delhi at kmeenakshisu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Vipin V. Nair at vnair12@bloomberg.net

[hokomoko]

Amazing subway system indeed...

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Abhishek901

Airport Express line (cc self)

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Abhishek901

Construction of Line 7 (ring road line) between Naraina and Dhaula Kuan

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting.

Originally Posted by Abhishek901

Blue line crossing over Raja Garden flyover

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Abhishek901

Green line crossing over Punjabi Bagh flyover

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Abhishek901

Red line

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

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IMG_0169 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr


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IMG_0158 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

Green Line

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

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IMG_0146 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

Rajauri Bridge

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

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IMG_0139 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

ORR

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IMG_0138 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr


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IMG_0137 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

ORR

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

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IMG_0131 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

Airport Express Station, Dhaula Kuan


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IMG_0132 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

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IMG_0130 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

Airport Express

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IMG_0128 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting.

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

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IMG_0127 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

Airport Express

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IMG_0126 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting.

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

Airport Express line and NH-8

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IMG_0120 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr


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IMG_0118 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by Master of Disguise

image hosted on flickr

IMG_0116 by indian rockstars 01, on Flickr

DGE & Airport Express line

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting.

Originally Posted by metrofreak

from TOI today:

Standing at 22m from the ground level, the interchange Metro station coming up at Karkardooma will be the tallest station in the Delhi Metro network . Part of the Mukundpur-Shiv Vihar corridor in Phase III of Delhi Metro, the new station — to be built at an angle to the existing station — will be as high as an eight-storey building. "The difference in height between the two stations will be 7m," said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson.

The reason for going so high is the location of the existing station , say DMRC officials.

"The present station is part of the Yamuna Bank-Vaishali line, which goes from Preet Vihar to Karkardooma and then on to Anand Vihar. The new corridor, which will run from Trilokpuri and then pass Anand Vihar, will cross the Yamuna Bank-Vaishali corridor at a 90 degree angle," said the DMRC official.

The height difference between the rail tracks of the two stations will be 10.55m. The existing station's height is 14.5m. While the Yamuna Bank-Vaishali corridor is built on broadgauge , the Mukundpur line will be built on standard-gauge . Till now, the Akshardham station is the highest station on Delhi Metro's network.

However, height is not the only unique feature of the new station, say Delhi Metro officials. "A curved foot overbridge will connect the two stations . The FOB, which will be 101m in length and 8m wide, will serve as a walkway for commuters and connect the concourse and the platform of the operational station with the concourse of the new station," said the DMRC official. It will stand at a height of 15.6m from the ground level.

The new station will be built over five levels, with a separate area earmarked for property development by DMRC.

The station area is more than 12,000 sqm with an additional area of 12,000 sqm for property development.

Targeting the neighbourhoods of Karkardooma, Krishna Nagar, Gagan Vihar, Hargobind Enclave, Saini Enclave and Jagriti Enclave, the interchange station is expected to have a ridership of 17,709 commuters. The existing station has a ridership of 10,000 people.

Officials in DMRC added that the tender for the station is yet to be awarded. It's scheduled to become operational by 2016.

[Abhishek901]

Crossposting

Originally Posted by infra desperados

few snaps taken on yesterday by me...
inside metro




[IMG]http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8282/7...722025c3_b.jpg[/IMG]
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