The Deccan Herald  30.08.2010

BMTC proposes TTMCs under PPP mode

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will construct a total of 45 bus stations on the lines of the Traffic and Transit Management Centres (TTMC), Transport Minister R Ashok said on Sunday.

Speaking after inaugurating the third BMTC-TTMC at Bannerghatta Ecological Park here, Ashok said, “Apart from the 10 TTMCs constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM), we have proposed construction of 35 more TTMCs under a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. Tenders floated for the first PPP bus station at Hebbal is ready,” said the minister.

The Bannerghatta TTMC has been constructed at a cost of Rs 5.5 crore. The Centre will fund 35 per cent of the cost, while 15 per cent will be borne by the State government and the remaining 50 per cent will be from BMTC funds. The first and second TTMC at Jayanagar and Kengeri have been already inaugurated and are functioning.

Ashok also inaugurated a rice mela at the new TTMC. “Following a request from the Forest department, that has parted with some of its land at Bannerghatta for construction of the TTMC, BMTC will adopt five lions from the zoo,” he added.

The Times of India  27.08.2010

Harbour line trains may get white and purple rakes soon

MUMBAI: Harbour Line commuters between Andheri and CST who have always felt sidelined as they have been thrust up with only old brown and yellow rakes have a reason to smile; by March, they may have the new Siemens rakes shuttling on their lines.

This projected move is interlinked with complete traction power switchover from 1,500 volts direct current (DC) to 25,000 volts alternating current (AC) on the Western Line, which is in turn interconnected with the arrival of the balance 30 plus rakes from the first phase of the Mumbai Urban Transport project (MUTP-I).

For WR commuters, the good news is that 27 more new rakes will be pumped into its network by March, which means that nearly every rake on the WR will be a white and purple one. Since WR would replace its old DC rakes with AC-DC ones, it would `donate' 15 rakes to its counterpart, Central Railway (CR), while retrofitting the 10. Officials said the CR fleet is old and many of these transferred rakes would be used to help the older ones to retire.

Retrofitting is the process in which the electrics in a DC rake are changed to make them AC-DC compatible. The train's interiors are changed to match the new Siemens rakes while the coach shell is retained. A train which has a residual life of more than 10 years is eligible for the process ,which costs the railways around Rs 4.5 crore per rake. Retrofitment of WR rakes will start in December.

The initial deadline for the entire WR suburban section to switch to AC was November, which has now been pushed back to anytime between December and March as it was directly linked with the arrival of the new rakes.

"The first priority of WR is to replace its old DC rakes so that DC-AC is successful. We will then look at converting all its services from 9-car to 12-car and introduce more 15-car trains,'' said Chief PRO, WR, S S Gupta.

At present, of the 1,210 services run by WR, 432 are 9-car while one 15-car trains does 12 services. "Since AC is more powerful, there will be a huge capacity enhancement by March and 9-car rakes will all be augmented within two months of March,'' said Gupta.

CR officials told TOI that the new Siemens rakes may enter Harbour line between CST and Andheri as needed but not CST-Bandra, but there is also a chance that they may also pump in BHEL trains from their fleet in the section as they too are AC-DC compatible.

WR's fleet strength: 86 rakes

At any given time, 76 are in services while the rest are on under maintenance

51 new white and purple AC-DC rakes have already been added to its fleet while another 27 are expected by March.

WR will retain 8 of Alstom AC-DC rakes which are lesser than 10 years old, retrofit 10 and transfer 15 to CR.