Taxi Pods Add Swank To Travel

No jostling in queues at autorickshaw counters, no rows over faulty metres, no haggling: what a bliss city travel would be if we could simply hop into a pod, punch in the destination, swipe the payment card and sit back contently while it takes us where we want to go. It might seem like a futuristic pipe dream for many, but not for Infrastructure Kerala Limited (Inkel), the state government’s initiative to channel private investments into development projects.
Inkel is proposing a state-of-the-art personal rapid transit (PRT) system for the state capital modelled along the one introduced recently at Heathrow airport in London. It consists of battery-operated driverless guided vehicles that run on pre-programmed routes on dedicated elevated guide rails. To put it simply – Pods on Rails. Shri. T. Balakrishnan, Inkel Managing Director, says their vision is of a PRT network feeding into the proposed Monorail system. He said there was also a plan to bring PRT system to Kottayam. “These projects will bring something very new and very innovative to transport in Kerala.”
London’s Heathrow airport has the world’s first commercial PRT system, although PRT was first introduced in Morgan Town, West Virginia, USA in 1975. Masdar eco-city in Abu Dhabi also has one. Cities in India where PRT is proposed include Amritsar, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Rajkot and Tirupati.
Inkel admits that the project will need substantial capital investment. Construction cost for the elevated rail is estimated to be Rs. 50-60 crores per kilometre. Inkel proposes a Special Purpose Vehicle on the CIAL model. The project will offer opportunity for investments from as low as Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 10 crore.
Pod cars could address many of the city’s traffic problems, inclu- ding high congestion, large-scale on-street parking, and dense
development which leaves little land for expansion of roads and other transport infrastructure. One of the key advantages of PRT is minimal use of land and fast execution of the project because of the use of precast structures in construction and very little disruption to existing traffic. Stations and guide rails can be customised according to location and expansion is possible in modules.
The guide ways are usually 5.5 metres high and measure 4.1 metre in width for a double track. Pod cars are lightweight electric vehicles which only move when there is user demand, which makes them highly energy efficient. In addition, stations and pods can be fitted with solar panels generating clean, renewable energy.
The government has given in-principle approval for the project and UK-based Ultra Fairwood has been roped in as the technology partner. NATPAC has carried out the traffic survey and demand forecasting.Inkel is hoping to start off the project with a line running from the Railway Station to East Fort. Once in motion the first phase of the project could be completed in as little as 24-36 months.