India Railwatch

[jpatokal]

News from a neighbor that gets less press than in should: Delhi's fully-underground Line 2 is now complete. Previous sections have been in the north of the city and have seen mildly disappointing ridership figures, but the new 7-km stretch opened on July 3rd burrows through the very heart of town and connects together three of Delhi's largest transport hubs -- Old Delhi railway station, New Delhi railway station and the ISBT bus terminal. And most unusually for an Indian project, it was completed eight months ahead of schedule! Line 3, the final bit of the Phase I network and the line forecasted to have the highest ridership of all, is also progressing well and on track to open by December 2005 as planned.

[Wisarut]

Well, at least BBC has capture the news about Delhi Metro as shown here:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showth...=160749&page=4

[Yappofloyd]

A direct link to the BBC report is here . The Dehli metro construction seems to be being completed on time (well actually ly 8 mths apparentahead of schedule!), unlike many other public works projects in India. Another new line, Line 3 - 32 kms, is due to open in Dec , see urbanrail site. The Dehlimetro site with maps of the proposed networ.
Seems as though the Dehli is getting this done quickly almost as quick as some Chinese city metros. Will BKK be able to emulate such feats....?

[planedrummer449]

In this day and age no....not with all the corruption and bureacracy.
But maybe someday if the future it will be possible. I hope.

[Ijud]

The Star: 11th. October 2005
Doxport to start MRT talks next month

BY SABRY TAHIR

DOXPORT Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd is expected to start talks by mid-November on a 22- to 25-year concession of the proposed RM1.5bil mass light transit (MRT) Skybus Metro project in Hyderabad.

Managing director Sivalingam Thechinamoorthy said negotiations with the Indian authorities would commence after the completion of a technical feasibility study on Skybus' pilot run in Hyderabad, which recently got the nod from the Andhra Pradesh Government.

He said Doxport recently signed with Indian railway operator Konkan Railway Corp, which holds the intellectual property rights, for Skybus to carry out the feasibility study.

“The study will take four months and, if all goes well, Skybus can be operational in 2008,” Sivalingam said after the launch of Doxport's railway IT solutions SMART (Skybus Metro Accentuated Rail Transport System) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

The company has appointed asset development service provider Opus International (M) Bhd as project manager and consultant for managing and completing the study.

Doxport will execute the project under a Build, Operate and Transfer basis. The project will be transferred to the state government after the concession period.

The Skybus project, which consists of two linked coaches suspended from elevated rails able to carry up to 150 commuters in each coach and travels up to 100km/h, was seen as a better bargain compared with the high cost of developing other means of MRT including metro rail, mono-rail and rapid transit system.

Skybus is touted as much safer than the conventional railway and more economical than the metro rail. Sivalingam said Doxport Technologies, formerly known as Doxport Consultancy, started the MRT business after it acquired Zygox Inc, a California-based biometric solutions provider which was carving a niche for itself in the MRT business, particularly in India.

Zygox in 2002 secured the entire information and communications technology portion of the first pilot project for Skybus in Goa, worth about RM120mil.

[jpatokal]

It's not just China who is booming anymore:

http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=86600
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=86646
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=86644
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_st...ntent_id=86598

Also check out the New Hyderabad Airport site. Pretty, except for the somewhat pathetic Project Progress bar

[ncr]

Good find, Jpat!

quite amazing... are we really talking about India?

Especially those Delhi Subway developments are more than impressive:

What this means for Delhi: Phase I covers 55.79 km, carries 5 lakh passengers daily, [...]

Really? "5 lakh" translates as 500,000. That's a lot for a newly opened metro. But then, as they say, the first phase already covers more than 55 km. Anyway, the Indians really push it:

Not even a month after Metro completed its Phase I, with over 55 km spread across the city, work on Phase II has begun.

B B Garg, Project Manager, Persys Arvind Techno, the private firm constructing the bridge for DMRC, says that while the target date is September 2007, ‘‘we will finish work much before that, probably by year-end. We are working round the clock’’.

And Bangkok?

I still vividly remember something --- HM The King, at the subway opening, 03 July 2004: "This system should be expanded quickly." One and a half years on, we have seen lots of meddling in mass trasit plans, but we may well doubt if we will even see the start of construction of the Blue Ring and Hualamphong - Bang Khae extension this year, which were never in danger of being axed for political reasons, and for which detailed plans should be ready since a long time ago???

[jpatokal]

The Delhi Metro's Phase I already included three lines of 'real' metro, and if anything the 500,000 ridership is somewhat below projections -- partly due to problems in setting up feeder services and eliminating duplicate buses. As usual, oodles of info available at UrbanRail and the Delhi Metro mailing lost (Yahoo reg. required).

But yes, the progress is truly remarkable even/especially by Indian standards; for comparison, look at Calcutta, which after 32 years of construction has a grand total of 16.5 km of metro along one line, with a further 8.5 km under construction... since 1995. Many credit the managing director E. Sreedharan, who has pulled off similar miracles before and seems to have an incredible way with beating hide-bound bureaucracies into shape.

[Ijud]

The Star: 15th April 2006

By LEONG SHEN-LI

KUALA LUMPUR: KL Infrastructure Group Bhd, the company which operates the monorail here, has submitted a proposal to construct four new lines in the Klang Valley with a total length of 71km.

KLIG chairman Datuk Ahmad Sa’adi said the project was estimated to cost RM4.5bil and would take six years to complete.

“We presented this proposal to the Government two months ago,” he said yesterday.

Ahmad said the four new lines were the 21km Petaling Jaya line, 18km Subang Jaya line, 19km Sungai Buloh line and 13km Cheras line. The four lines will have 47 stations.

The Sungai Buloh line will directly link up with the existing KL Monorail system at the Titiwangsa station while the Subang Jaya line will link up with the existing system at the Tun Sambanthan station in Brickfields.

All four lines will integrate with the existing light rail transit (LRT) and the KTM Komuter rail systems.

“We expect the new lines to ferry some 400,000 passengers per day,” he said.

He added that when the entire network was completed, the existing lines would also experience an increase in usage because more people would find it convenient to use public transport.

“We should see another 320,000 passengers using the entire rail system daily on top of the current 340,000 passengers,'' he said.

He said this would help the Government achieve the Ninth Malaysia Plan target of a 30:70 public to private transport ratio for the Klang Valley.

Ahmad said under the proposal, MTrans Holdings Sdn Bhd, the holding company of KLIG, would manufacture 62 new monorail trains for the new lines.

“The new trains will have four cars each and carry at least 400 people,” he said.

Proposed Monorail Extension Map

[jpatokal]

Here I was thinking we were a pretty hardcore bunch of train geeks, but once again the Japanese have managed to bring it to an entirely new level:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVJZTRpYxg

[Tettyan]

Originally Posted by jpatokal

Here I was thinking we were a pretty hardcore bunch of train geeks, but once again the Japanese have managed to bring it to an entirely new level:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JVJZTRpYxg

This is awesome! You just made my week. Thanks for posting this.

[jpatokal]

As I type this, the final Barakhamba Road-Indraprastha section (2.81 km) of Delhi Metro Line 3 has just opened:

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmor...egory=National
http://www.hindu.com/2006/11/09/stor...0914390100.htm

This marks the completion of Phase I of the project. Work on Phase II is already in full swing.

On a personal note, I had the chance to try out the Metro a few weeks back, and it really is an achievement: a 100% world-class system in a country where very little if any of the infrastructure deserves that label. Line 2, which burrows through the phenomenally congested heart of Old Delhi, is particularly remarkable: can you imagine building an underground metro line through this?

http://wikitravel.org/shared/Image:C...JamaMasjid.JPG

My hat is off to E. Sreedharan and the rest of the DMRC team -- keep it up!

[GWR]

First India-Bangladesh train link
By John Sudworth
BBC News, Dhaka

A train carrying Indian government officials has crossed the border and arrived in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

The 500km (310 mile) journey marked the resumption of a direct passenger rail service between the two countries.

The link was suspended following the war between India and Pakistan more than four decades ago.

The diesel engine pulling five newly-painted coaches left Calcutta early on Sunday morning but arrived in Dhaka about two hours late.

It had been due to arrive at 1630 local time (1030 GMT).

The test run was the first full journey for the Moitree (Friendship) Express, but there were no paying passengers on board the train.

The train carried an Indian government delegation to meet their counterparts in Dhaka to finalise the timetable for the new service.

Symbolism

The driver gave it a blast on the horn for history's sake, as the train, with its India Railways insignia, rolled into Dhaka draped in bunting.

The two-hour delay in arriving seemed a mere trifle when compared to the 42 years the people of Bangladesh had been waiting for a direct train service to carry them across the border.

In 1965, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan when the war with India severed the international rail link.

That has remained suspended despite Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan a few years later.

In the 1990s, direct buses began running between Dhaka and Calcutta for the first time.

But the train has symbolic importance.

With seats likely to start from around $8 (£4), it will be popular with the thousands of Bangladeshis seeking medical treatment on the other side of the border.

Others will use it for visiting friends and relatives in India, with whom they share a common language.

The full Dhaka to Calcutta passenger service will start within the next few weeks.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6281710.stm

India signs trans-Asian railways pact
merinews network
05 July 2007, Thursday
Views: 107 Comments: 1

Soon the Indian traders would be able to export their goods to Europe through a dedicated railway network which will encompass the entire Asian continent.

NOT ONLY WILL this rail network revolutionize transportation in Asia but it will also bring in an element of political consolidation in the fractured Asian region. It will also provide a unique opportunity for India to strengthen ties with South East Asia and strengthen rail linkages in North Eastern part of the country.

With India and Bangladesh signing on the dotted lines in London, the dream of the trans-Asian railway network is likely to materialize as eighteen other Asian countries are already signatory to this agreement. The agreement was signed on India’s behalf by J.P.Batra, Chairman Railway Board, Indian Railways recently at UN Headquarters, New York.

Trans-Asian Railway Network will improve transport linkages between Asia and Europe facilitating movement of goods and containers among SAARC and ASEAN countries resulting in enhanced trade. The network comprises of 80,900 kilometres passing through 28 countries out of which 22600 kilometers pass through South Asia, Iran and Turkey. The Southern Corridor of the network as decided in an expert group meeting held in Dhaka in 1999, commences from Kunming in China and Bangkok in Thailand and ends in Kapikule in Bulgaria.

The total length of this route between Bangkok and Kapikule is 11,460 Kms and it provides Trans-continental rail connectivity to the countries of China, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Iran and Turkey. The Trans-Asia rail network will enter India at Tamu, bordering Myanmar, entering Bangladesh at Mahisasan / Shabajpur and again enter India from Bangladesh at Gede. On the west side, the route is proposed to enter Pakistan at Attari. This route has a missing link of 315 Kms between India and Myanmar of which 180 Kms alone is in India between Jiribam and Tamu in Manipur state.

The missing link in India from Jiribam (in Manipur) to Tamu in Myanmar as per the feasibility study conducted by the ministry of external affairs through RITES Ltd, is estimated to cost Rs 2,941 crore. Railway ministry has already sanctioned construction of 97 km new rail link on this portion, between Jiribam and Tupul near Imphal, at a cost of Rs 727.5 crore.

The inter-governmental agreement on Trans-Asian railway, conceived by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), was opened for signature during the ministerial conference on transport, Busan, South Korea, in November 2006.

In line with the Government’s “Look East Policy” that requires strengthening of rail linkages in the region especially with our South East Asian neighbours, the Government of India has signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement on Trans-Asian Railway. Earlier, 18 countries had signed the agreement at Busan, Republic of Korea in November 2006. Now with India and Bangladesh signing the agreement, a total number of 20 countries have become signatories of this agreement.

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=125550

India Bangladesh rail link resumes

Freight train services between India and Bangladesh have resumed after a gap of twenty-five years.

The Indian Railways Minister, Mamata Banerjee, flagged off the first train from Petrapole in the state of West Bengal, bound for Benapole in Bangladesh.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Mrs Banjeree said she expected passenger trains to use the route in the near future, and that could be the precursor to a passenger service between Calcutta and Dhaka.

The transport link was disrupted by two wars between India and Pakistan and political turmoil in Bangladesh itself.

In a separate development Indian and Pakistani railway officials have reached an agreement to extend the only rail link between their two countries for a further three years.

The twice-weekly Samjhauta Express is currently used by about two thousand people per week.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1129458.stm

[GWR]

Love this video! The ultimate in black smoke from a diesel loco! One wonders what it was like before they converted to biodiesel! The layout of the tracks in the video, the grade and the loco being used as a pusher seem to indicate that this was taken on a switchback line. This is also rather fast for a YDM-4 I would imagine! Presumably building up a head of steam (or rather black smoke) at the outset of the switchback, before the steepest grade kicks in and reduces it to snail's pace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pND7...eature=related

From: arvindkrishnan
Added: August 08, 2007
Mettupalayam-Ooty Passenger, leaving Coonoor, pushed uphill by a bio-diesel powered YDM-4 loco #6225, brought to Coonoor from the main-line metre-gauge routes in the plains. Hence you will note that the locomotive is longer than the carriages!

There are no centrally laid toothed rack-bars on the 19 Km stretch between Coonoor and Ooty, and the maximum gradient is 1 in 23, i.e. one foot rise/descent for every 23 feet of travel.

[GWR]

See fascinating YouTube video of a biofuelled YDM-4 loco in the previous post

Originally Posted by GWR

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6281710.stm
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=125550
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1129458.stm

India, Bangladesh to resolve row over train service

20/02/2008 -- 8:44 PM
Ha Noi (VNA) – India and Bangladesh have agreed to soon resolve a row over fencing of no-man's land and other issues that have delayed the launch of the Dhaka-Kolkata train service.

"The two sides agreed that some minor disputes could be solved soon to launch the regular train service," Press Trust of India reported, citing an official statement.

India and Bangladesh recently finalised an agreement to launch the direct train service between Dhaka and Kolkata during a two-day meeting in Dhaka in July.

Passenger train services between the two countries were suspended after the 1965 war between India and undivided Pakistan. Bangladesh and India signed an agreement in 2001 to resume direct train service between Dhaka and Kolkata.-Enditem

http://www.vnanet.vn/Home/EN/tabid/1...6/Default.aspx