Traffic jam soon to become history; travelling on ropeway to start in Kolkata

Kolkata, July 1: Soon Kolkata will be free from the hustle bustle life of the city. Traffic jam soon will become a thing of past. People in the city will get opportunity to travel on ropeway.

The wait is likely to get over soon as a company is all set to introduce Curvo, the world's first non-linear aerial ropeway, for second tier urban commutation in two sectors in the city along with the state government.

"It was a dream to provide a pollution-free and traffic-free mode of transportation system to people and we will be the first in the world to introduce this non-linear aerial ropeway system," Conveyor and Ropeway Services Private Limited (CRSPL) Managing Director Shekhar Chakravarty said.

The two sectors were - Sealdah to BBD Bagh area and from Howrah to the new state secretariat at Nabanna.

"We have carried out a detailed survey on certain congested major arterial roads like Sealdah, College Street and Park Street and have submitted a complete plan to the state government," company Director Rachana Mukherjee said.

"We have spoken to the Urban development minister and KMDA chairman Firhad Hakim and Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is working on the proposal," Chakravarty said.

The Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Service Ltd (ILFS) was working on the detailed project report (DPR) and once that was ready, tenders would be floated, he said.

A test-run of the prototype has been conducted on 500-metre stretch at Bhasha near Joka and the Kolkata-based company was in the process of applying for certification to open the prototype to the public, he said.

The service, operational on electricity, would be on steel frames spreading at a distance of around 90-100 metres running through the existing arterial and other roads to avoid congested streets of the city.

There would be elevated stops at every distance of 750 metres and the cars would be able to gain speed of about 4.25 metre per second (12.5 km/hour) with the ability to carry an estimated 2,000 people every hour, Chakravarty said.

"The cabins will have an accommodation capacity of 8-10 persons and will run at intervals of 22-25 seconds," Chakravarty, who was hopeful of introducing Curvo in 18-24 months, said.

Maintaining that Kolkata has a potential of having 100 non-linear ropeways, Mukherjee said, "Curvo will require nominal ground space for stations and rope-supporting portal frames. It has nothing to do with road space and the traffic flow or with the pedestrian flow below. Since it will run on electricity, there will not be emission of any poisonous gas also. It is reasonably noiseless and will travel at an average hourly speed of around 12.5 km despite route alignment."

The stations, she said, would have elevators for reaching the station level.

"Once a cabin reaches a station, doors will open automatically and facilitate boarding/deboarding at very low speed of .25 metres per second," she said, adding the carrying capacity of the ropeway would be 2,000-2,500 passengers per hour in each direction on a single track.

Talking about the costs, Mukherjee said "It will be one-tenth to that of Metro trains. The estimated cost of putting this system in operation will be Rs 20 crore per km.

It was learnt that nearly Rs 10 crore was spent over the last 5-7 years to design and develop CRSPL's patented product in Joka.

Mukherjee further claimed Bangladesh has shown interest in the Curvo-concept for use at its capital, Dhaka.

She also claimed CRSPL, which has a 40 per cent market share in India's ropeway industry, has bagged an order from GTA for a 2.5 km passenger ropeway from Siliguri's Rohini Tourist Complex to Gidda Pahar in Kurseong, besides several other other projects in Rajasthan.

OneIndia News
(With agency inputs)