Urban Transport Infrastructure May 2020

#urbanTransport ISSN 2581-8023 // COVER PRICE INR250.00 // PAGES 60

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VOL. II / ISSUE 9 / BI-MONTHLY / MAY 2020

infrastructure

METRO | HSR | RRTS | ROAD TRANSPORT | E-MOBILITY | WATER TRANSPORT | URBAN AIR MOBILITY | PRT & PODS | SMART CITIES

FEATURED ARTICLES INSIDE       

MAGRAIL Technology for the next generation of HSR Creating Sustainable Rail Network Implementation of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Top 10 Transportation Trends to watch for in 2020 Management of COVID-19 for transport industry Steps to restart public transport after lockdown ends Rail Infra and Mobility Business Digital Awards 2020

COVID-19 and its effects on Rail and Transport Industry Published by Scan from here to read online version

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RIMBDA 2020

RAIL INFRA AND MOBILITY BUSINESS DIGITAL AWARDS 2020 AWARDS CATEGORIES

Corporate Category 10. Mass Rapid Transit Project of the Year 11. Bus Transit Project of the Year 12. Green Mobility Project of the Year 13. Infra Solution Provider of the Year 14. Rail Solution Provider of the Year 15. Tunneling Solution Provider of the Year

Corporate Category 16. Shared Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 17. Micro-Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 18. E-Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 19. App-based Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 20. DPR Consultant of the Year 21. Project Management Consultant of the Year 22. Infra Designer & Architecture of the Year 23. M&P Solution Provider of the Year 24. Rail Business Start-up of the Year 25. Infra Business Start-up of the Year 26. Mobility Business Start-up of the Year 27. Rail & Transport Training Provider of the Year 28. Urban Transport Research Institute of the Year 29. PR Solution Provider of the Year 30. Security Solution Provider of the Year 31. Digital Solution Provider of the Year

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Winner Announcement 30.06.2020 Nomination Fee INR 10000 | USD 150 Scan Code to know more:

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Individual 01. Rail Business Leader of the Year 02. Infra Business Leader of the Year 03. Mobility Business Leader of the Year 04. Urban Infra Architect of the Year 05. Railway Innovator of the Year 06. Transport Researcher of the Year 07. Young Researcher of the Year 08. Infra Man of the Year 09. Infra Woman of the Year

Urban Transport Infrastructure / MAY 2020 / Vol. II / Issue 9

REGULAR COLUMNS

06

Editorial Advisory Board

07

Editor’s Note

08

Subscription Form

09

Round Up - Jan & Feb 2020

12

Urban Rail Progress Report

15

Major Contracts Awarded in 2019-20

57

Leaders Feedback

23 INTERVIEW 22

Ms. Kasia Foljanty

32

Ms. Grace Ho

49

Mr. Vimal Kejriwal

Co-founder & CBO, Hyper Poland

President, SWAT Mobility, Singapore

MD & CEO, KEC International Limited

22 EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE

4

19

Management of COVID-19: Guidelines for Public Transport Operators

22

MAGRAIL: A new hyper rail technology for next generation high speed railways

32

By UITP

By Hyper Poland

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT

30

Rail Infra and Mobility Business Digital Awards 2020 (RIMBDA 2020)

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CONTENT 

26

Fresh entries for the next Edition “July 2020” is opened till 25 June 2020.

39

COVER STORY

26

COVID-19 and its effects on Rail and Transport Industry

M.C. Chauhan, Railway Technology Expert, IRSEE & Ex-GM (NCR & Kolkata Metro Railway)

RAIL MARKET INSIGHTS 36

Rolling Stock Market Performance: How COVID19 affects differently in pricesensitive vs. quality sensitive Bedy Kharisma, Data and Business Analyst, Global Rail Market

KNOWLEDGE SERIES

39

A. Lakshmi Narayanan, Senior Environmental Health Expert

COVID-19 SPECIAL

34

53

Mobility As A Service (MaaS)

45

Speedy & forceive steps required for “MaaS” implementation in public transport for India’s development Dr. Amudhan Valavan, Public Transport Expert

TRANSPORTATION TRENDS 51

Top 10 Transportation Trends to watch for in 2020 Luke Grainger, Technology Thinker

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Creating a Sustainable Rail Network: Sustainability, New Energy sources and Renewable by implementing technologies to optimize energy usage

Steps to restart public transit after lockdown ends Amruta Pokshe, Associate Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF)

Effects of COVID-19 on Transportation Demand Aravind Harikumar, Research Associate, The Energy and Research Institute (TERI)

COVID-19 shows we need a broader definition of safe mobility

54

Michelle Avary, Head- Automotive and Autonomous Mobility, And Tim Dawkins LeadAutomotive and Autonomous Mobility World Economic Forum

INDUSTRY EVENTS

56

Event Calendar 2020

58

Editorial Calendar 2020-21

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

5

Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Our distinguished advisory board has been assembled to guide Urban Transport Infrastructure journal to become even more representative of urban mobility & infrastructure industry. Members have been invited from the highest levels of the industry and academic/research institutions to ensure high quality content so that the journal can continue on its path of success.

Dr. Vinay Maitri Professor & Dean School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi

Dr. Richa Chowdhary Associate Professor University of Delhi, New Delhi

Karuna Gopal Smart Cities Advisor Foundation for Futuristic Cities, Hyderabad

Dr. Annapoorna Ravi Media & Comm. Expert Public Affairs Centre (PAC), Bangalore

Dr. Surabhi Singh Associate Professor Institute of Management Studies (IMS), Ghaziabad

Ar. Priyanka Kumar Urban Planner Regional Centre for Urban & Environmental Studies, Lucknow

Dr. Vivek Vaidyanathan Urban Transport Scientist Center for Study of Science, Technology & Policy (CSTEP), Bangalore

R. Sethuraman Sr. EPC Advisor Chennai

Sudhanshu Mani, IRSME Urban Rail Expert Ex-GM/ICF, Indian Railways, Chennai

Dr. Kamal Soi Road Safety Expert Member-National Road Safety Council, New Delhi

Dr. Valavan Amudhan Public Transport Expert Executive Director-TECHSACS

Ishan Chanda Dy. Manager DIMTS, New Delhi

Mehjabeen Economist & Policy Expert Hyderabad

6

Sanjam Gupta Director Sitara Shipping Limited, Mumbai

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

Ad. Sanndhya Pillai Maritime Lawyer SSS Maritime Services & Consultancy (P) Ltd., Mumbai

MC Chauhan, IRSEE Railway Expert Ex. Chairman –KMRC, Ex. GM/NCR, Indian Railways

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Vol. II / Issue 9

MAY 2020

Managing Editor’s Message

Mamta Shah Managing Editor Vinod Shah Head - Communications Surya Prakash Circulation In-charge Anushka Khare Associate Editor Naomi Pandya Digital Media & Design Executive Krishtina D’Silva Sr. News Editor (Global News) Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine is published bi-monthly by:

Urban Transport News F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase-I, New Delhi-110091 Tel: 011-4248 4505, +91-9716 4545 05 E-mail: editor@urbantransportnews.com Web: www.urbantransportnews.com Subscriptions: Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine is sent without obligation to professionals and key opinion leaders working in urban transport industry in India and other countries. However, publisher reserves the right to limit the number of copies.

Cover Price: Print ₹ 250.00, Digital- ₹100.00 Annual: Print ₹ 1800.00, Digital: ₹ 500.00 All subscriptions payable in advance. Print circulation available in India only. © All rights reserved.

Contents of this publication may not be reproduced without written consent of the publisher.

For reprint, circulation in outside India, please contact: editor@urbantransportnews.com Edited and published digitally by Mrs. Mamta Shah, Managing Editor from F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase I, New Delhi-110091, India.

ISSN 2581-8023 Disclaimer: The facts and opinions expressed by the authors/contributors here do not reflect the views of editorial team or editorial board of Urban Transport News/Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine.

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Dear Readers, It is clear that the ways we travel, and use transport, will not be the same after the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak as they were before. What we don’t know is which changes will turn out to have been temporary, and which permanent.

There are no comparable figures that suggest how many car journeys the world should expect in six months or a year’s time. But it is to be hoped that the huge reduction in motor traffic caused by the virus will not be completely reversed.

Improving air quality is one motive, particularly in cities, not least because pollution is thought to be a contributor to Covid-19 deaths. Encouraging people to walk and cycle is another. Fitter, less overweight people are less at risk from all sorts of diseases, particularly respiratory ones.

For health reasons, as well as a wish to reduce noise pollution, improve road safety and the public realm more broadly, green transport campaigners have long argued for space to be redistributed, for example by the creation of new cycle lanes and walking routes. Town and city pavements are generally narrow, with carriageways taking up twice or three times as much space – much of it for parking. But the need for physical distancing makes the case for change unarguable. While those who need to drive for business or personal reasons must, of course, be allowed to, the presumption of an entitlement to drive must not continue to trump the right to walk and cycle safely.

As the lockdown continues, the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles, including regular exercise, grows. From many points of view, public transport remains preferable to the use of private cars. But the danger now associated with mixing with strangers in crowded places means it makes sense, at least in the short term, to shift attention and resources towards walking, scootering and cycling while promoting measures to make public transport as safe as possible, for both workers and passengers.

Whenever the lockdown lifts, the increased opportunities for walking and cycling that have been among the unexpected side-effects of the crisis must be locked in.

In this special edition, we have tried to provide in-depth analysis on COVID19 and its effects on Rail and Transport Industry, and the measure to be taken after lifting COVID-19 lockdown.

Kindly share your valuable feedback so that we can improve and provide more useful information to our readers in future editions.

Stay Safe and Stay Happy!

Mamta Shah Managing Editor editor@urbantransportnews.com MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

7

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ROUND UP ď ˇď ľ

HIGHLIGHTS MAR-APR 2020 March 2020 AP Govt. plans rapid bus transit system in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh | BRTS The Transport Department, Government of Andhra Pradesh is planning to implement the Visakhapatnam Rapid Autonomous Connected Bus Transit System (RACBTS).

BMRCL acquires land on Ballari Road for Bangalore Metro Phase 2B | Metro Rail Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has acquired 9.3 hectares of land on Ballari Road from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for Hebbal-Trumpet interchange stretch of the Banglaore Airport Metro Corridor.

Two firms submit bids for conducting EIA study for expansion works at Madurai Airport | Airport ABC Techno Labs India Private Limited and Ind Tech House Consult have submitted bids for conducting environment impact assessment (EIA) study for the Madurai Airport Expansion Project.

CMRL completes track laying works for Washermenpet-Wimco Nagar Extn of Chennai Metro Phase I | Metro Rail Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has completed the track laying works for the Chennai Metro Rail Project Phase-I Extension (Washermenpet to Wimco Nagar).

AP Govt. approves transfer of land for Bhogapuram airport in Andhra Pradesh | Airport The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet approved the transfer of 2,200 acres of land for implementation of Phase-I of the Bhogapuram Greenfield International Airport Project.

Karnataka Govt. allocates Rs 5,000 million for Bengaluru Suburban Rail in Budget 2020-21 | Suburban Rail The Government of Karnataka allocated funds worth Rs 5,000 million for the Bengaluru Suburban Rail Project (Bengaluru Commuter Rail System) under its budget 2020-21.

Karnataka Govt. plans to develop two Metrolite corridors of Bangalore Metro under PPP mode | Metrolite The Government of Karnataka is planning to develop two Metrolite corridors of Bangalore Metro Rail project Phase III under PPP mode.

Arunachal Pradesh Govt. allocates Rs 500 million for Itanagar airport project in budget 2020-21 | Airport The Government of Arunachal Pradesh allocated Rs 500 million fund for external infrastructure development for the Itanagar (Holongi) Greenfield Airport Project.

Maharashtra Govt. allocates Rs 780 million for various airport projects in budget 2020-21 | Airport The Government of Maharashtra allocated Rs 780 million fund for various airport projects under its budget 2020-21.

TMC allocates Rs 250 million funds for Light Rail project in Thane in budget 2020-21 | Light Rail The Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) allocated Rs 250 million fund for the Thane Light Rail Transit (LRT) Project.

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MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

9

ď ľď ˇ ROUND UP Indian Railways decides to prepare DPR for three new dedicated freight corridors | Freight Rail The Ministry of Railways has decided to undertake the preparation of detailed project report (DPR) for three new dedicated freight corridors (DFCs).

RITES submits bid for consultancy services for two light metro projects in Madhya Pradesh | Light Rail RITES Limited has submitted its bid for provision of detailed design consultancy (DDC) services for two rolling stock depots of the Bhopal Light Metro Rail Project and Indore Light Metro Rail Project.

DDA plans Metro Rail systems to connect Dwarka to IGIA, Bijwasan in Delhi | Metro Rail The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is planning to implement the Dwarka-IGIA Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) Project and Dwarka-Bijwasan Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) Project.

CMRS completes safety inspection for Chandpole-Bari Chaupar stretch of Jaipur Metro | Metro Rail The Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) completed two-days safety inspection for 2.35 km long Chandpole-Bari Chaupar stretch of the Jaipur Metro Rail Project (Phase I) on March 18, 2020.

Delhi Govt. allocates Rs 9000 million for Phase IV of Delhi Metro in budget 2020-21 | Metro Rail The Government of Delhi allocated funds worth Rs 9,000 million for implementation of the Delhi Metro Rail Project Phase IV under its budget 2020-21 on March 23, 2020.

JICA signs loan agreement with GoI for Phase I of Western DFC | Freight Rail The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed an agreement with Government of India (GoI) to provide official development assistance (ODA) loan of Rs 85.53 billion for Phase I of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Project (Western Corridor) on March 27, 2020.

JICA, GoI sign loan agreement for Mumbai Metro Line 3, Ahmedabad Metro Phase-I | Metro Rail The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Government of India signed an official development assistance (ODA) loan agreement for funds worth Rs 132,337.92 million for the Mumbai Metro Phase I Line 3 Project (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) and Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Metro Rail Project -Phase I on March 27, 2020.

JICA signs loan agreement with GoI for two road projects | MTHL The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Government of India (GoI) signed Official Development Assistance (ODA) loan agreements for Tranche II for the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) Project and the NorthEast Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project (Phase IV) on March 27, 2020.

April 2020 UPMRC plans six additional metro corridors under Lucknow Metro | Metro Rail Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (UPMRC) is planning to add six additional metro corridors under the Lucknow Metro Rail Project.

MRVC seeks funds from AIIB for various components under MUTP-3A | Suburban Rail Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) has sought funds worth Rs 38,120 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for various components under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) - Phase 3A. KRDCL board approves DPR for Kerala Silver Line Semi-HSR | Semi High Speed Rail Kerala Rail Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL) board has approved the detailed project report (DPR) for the Kerala Semi-High Speed Rail Corridor Project (Silver Line).

CMRL seeks funds from AIIB for CMBT-Sholinganallur stretch of Chennai Metro Phase-II | Metro Rail Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has sought funds Rs 33,603.86 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT)- Sholinganallur stretch of the Chennai Metro Rail Project Phase-II.

10

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

 URBAN RAIL PROGRESS REPORT

India’s Urban Rail Network AT A GLANCE

OPERATIONAL NETWORK System

# As on 31st March 2020

Network Length (km)

Metro Rail

677.4

Monorail

19.5

Tram

38.0

Suburban Rail

2593.5

Regional Rail (RRTS)

0

High Speed Rail

0

Total Network:

3328.4

UNDER CONSTRUCTION System

Network Length (km)

Metro Rail Metrolite Suburban Rail

Regional Rail (RRTS) High Speed Rail Total Network:

1060.18 0 79

188.15 508 1637.84

NEW APPROVED System

Network Length (km)

Metro Rail Metrolite/MetroNeo Suburban Rail Regional Rail (RRTS)

High Speed Rail Total Network:

12

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

626.67 69.85 252.96 103

0 1052.48 WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

URBAN RAIL PROGRESS REPORT  UNDER CONSTRUCTION METRO PROJECT

METRO RAIL PROJECTS

Project

OPERATIONAL METRO RAIL NETWORK Project

Network (km)

Network (km)

Kolkata Metro (West Bengal)

102.2

Ahmedabad Metro (Gujarat)

6.5

Mumbai Metro (Maharashtra)

180.0

Bangalore Metro (Karnataka)

42.3

Meerut Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

20.0

Chennai Metro (Tamil Nadu)

45.0

Nagpur Metro (Maharashtra)

76.5

Nashik Metro Neo (Maharashtra)

32.0 11.0

Delhi Metro (Delhi)

347.6

Gurgaon Rapid Metro (Haryana)

11.7

Navi Mumbai Metro (Maharashtra)

Hyderabad Metro (Telangana)

69.2

Patna Metro (Bihar)

31.39

Pune Metro (Maharashtra)

39.92 40.35

Jaipur Metro (Rajasthan)

9.6

Kochi Metro (Kerala)

23.8

Surat Metro (Gujarat)

Kolkata Metro (West Bengal)

33.2

Total Network:

Lucknow Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

22.9

Mumbai Metro (Maharashtra)

11.4

Project

Mumbai Monorail (Maharashtra)

19.5

Dholera Metro (Gujarat)

100.0

Nagpur Metro (Maharashtra)

24.5

Delhi Metrolite (Delhi)

40.85

Noida Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

29.7

Mumbai Metro (Maharashtra)

Kolkata Tram (West Bengal)

38.0

Nagpur BG Metro (Maharashtra)

Total Network:

734.9

Agra Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

NEW APPROVED METRO PROJECT Network (km)

87.6

268.63

Thane Metro (Maharashtra)

29.0

Total Network:

UNDER CONSTRUCTION METRO PROJECT Project

1060.18

Network (km) 29.4

526.08

UNDER CONSIDERATION METRO PROJECT Project

Network (km)

Ahmedabad Metro (Gujarat)

95.32

Coimbatore Metro (Tamil Nadu)

NA

Bangalore Metro (Karnataka)

80.0

Ghaziabad Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

NA

Bhopal Metro (Madhya Pradesh)

28.0

Gorakhpur Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

NA

Chennai Metro (Tamil Nadu)

118.9

Gurugram Metro (Haryana)

NA

Delhi Metro (Delhi)

103.9

Jewar Airport Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

NA

Noida Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

NA

Hyderabad Metro (Telangana)

3.1

Indore Metro (Madhya Pradesh)

31.5

Jammu Metro (J&K)

NA

2.3

Srinagar Metro (J&K)

NA

Varanasi Metro (Uttar Pradesh)

NA

Jaipur Metro (Rajasthan) Kanpur Metro (Uttar Pradesh) Kochi Metro (Kerala)

WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

32.4 2.0

Visakhapatnam Metro (Andhra Pradesh)

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

80.0

13

 URBAN RAIL PROGRESS REPORT

HSR/SEMI-HSR/RRTS PROJECTS HIGH SPEED RAIL NETWORK Project

Network (km)

Executing Agency

Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR corridor

534.0

NHSRCL

Under construction

Mumbai-Nagpur HSR corridor

753.0

NHSRCL

DPR under progress

Mumbai-Hyderabad HSR corridor

711.0

NHSRCL

DPR under progress

New Delhi-Varanasi HSR corridor

865.0

NHSRCL

DPR under progress

New Delhi-Ahmedabad HSR corridor

886.0

NHSRCL

DPR under progress

Chennai-Mysore HSR corridor

435.0

NHSRCL

DPR under progress

New Delhi-Amritsar HSR corridor

459.0

NHSRCL

DPR under progress

Delhi-Mumbai HSR corridor

1384.0

HSRCIL

Feasibility study completed

Mumbai-Chennai HSR corridor

1334.0

HSRCIL

Feasibility study under progress

Chennai-Kolkata HSR corridor

1670.0

HSRCIL

Pre-feasibility study under progress

Delhi-Kolkata HSR corridor

1447.0

HSRCIL

Feasibility study under progress

Mumbai-Kolkata HSR corridor

1961.0

HSRCIL

Pre-feasibility study under progress

Delhi-Chennai HSR corridor

2184.0

HSRCIL

Feasibility study under progress

Total Network:

Status

14623.0

SEMI HIGH SPEED RAIL NETWORK Project

Network (km)

Executing Agency

Status

Ahmedabad-Rajkot Semi HSR corridor

227.0

G-RIDE

Pune-Nashik Semi HSR corridor

231.7

MAHARAIL

DPR completed

Thiruvananthapuram-Kasargod Semi HSR corridor

530.6

K-RAIL

DPR completed

Total Network:

989.3

Feasibility study completed

REGIONAL RAIL TRANSIT SYSTEM NETWORK Project

Network (km)

Executing Agency

Delhi-Meerut RRTS Smart Line

82.15

NCRTC

Under construction

Delhi-Panipat RRTS Smart Line

103.0

NCRTC

DPR approved

Delhi-Alwar RRTS Smart Line

106.0

NCRTC

Under construction

Total Network:

14

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

Status

291.15

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INFRA BUSINESS REPORT 

MAJOR CONTRACTS AWARDED IN 2019-20 Project Name

Contractor

Tender Value

Work

Pune Metro

Alstom Transport India

₹164.79 Cr.

Supply of Signalling and Train Control Systems

Pune Metro

AFCONS-SPCPL JV

₹470.43 Cr.

Construction of 7 metro stations (Ramwadi-Mangalwarpeth stretch) of Reach-3

Mumbai Metro

Alstom Transport India

₹292.30 Cr.

Supply of Train Control, Signalling & Telecommunications Systems for Mumbai Metro Line 2A, 2B and 7.

Pune Metro

URC Constructions

₹377.90 Cr.

Construction of Range Hill and Vanaz Depots including E&M works.

Pune Metro

Alstom Transport India

₹93.40 Cr.

Supply of 25kV Rigid OHE/OCS Systems

Mumbai Metro

J Kumar Infraprojects

₹444.98 Cr.

Construction of viaducts and 3 elevated metro stations of Mumbai Metro Line 6

Pune Metro

Gulermak-Tata Projects JV

₹826.24 Cr.

Construction of underground stations at Budhwar Peth, Mandai & Swargate and associated tunnels on North-South corridor

Bangalore Metro

Alstom Transport India

₹580 Cr.

Supply of 750V DC third-rail traction, 30 33kV/415V auxiliary substations, 26 33kV/750V DC traction substations and a 33kV Cable distribution network

Pune Metro

Sterling & Wilson

₹297 Cr.

Supply of Sub-station, ASS , SCADA System and 33kV Cable Network.

Bangalore Metro

Parnika Commercial & Estates

₹170.41 Cr.

Construction of Metro depot in Hebbagodi in Reach 5 line of Bangalore Metro Rail project (Phase 2)

Mumbai Metro

Sterling- Cimechel JV

₹168.09 Cr.

Supply of 25kV OHE, SCADA, 33Kv ASS at Charkop depot of Mumbai Metro Line 2A

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MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

15

 INFRA BUSINESS REPORT Project Name

Contractor

Tender Value

Work

Mumbai Metro

BEML Limited

₹834 Cr.

Supply of additional 21 Metro trains sets (126 coaches) for Mumbai Metro Line 2 and 7

RRTS

KEC-CCECC JV

₹580 Cr.

Construction of viaduct and 2 RRTS stations (Sahibabad & Ghaziabad) of Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor

Pune Metro

Titagarh Firema SpA

₹1125 Cr.

Supply of 3-coach metro train sets (102 coaches)

Kochi Metro

KEC-CCECC JV

₹265 Cr.

Construction of viaducts and stations of Kochi Metro Phase I Extension project

Delhi Metro

ETA-Tricolite JV

₹100.91 Cr.

Supply of ECS/TVS Systems for Extension Delhi Metro Airport Line and Line-9

Kanpur Metro

Afcon Infrastructure

₹734.56 Cr.

Construction of elevated viaducts and 9 elevated metro stations

Pune Metro

Schindler India JV

₹122.56 Cr.

Supply of Heavy Duty Room less Elevators and Escalators (Lot 2)

Pune Metro

Johnson Lifts

₹52.1 Cr.

Supply of Heavy Duty Room less Elevators and Escalators (Lot 1)

Delhi Metro

BEML Limited

₹729 Cr.

Supply of 80 nos. broad-gauge metro coaches (RS1)

Bangalore Metro

Vascon Engineers

₹159.88 Cr.

Construction of Metro depot at Kadugodi in Reach-1 Extension Line of Bangalore Metro Phase 2

HSR

BL Kashyap & Sons

₹332 Cr.

Constructions of Sabarmati High Speed Terminal on MumbaiAhmedabad High Speed Rail corridor

Bangalore Metro

ITD Cementation

₹1771.25 Cr.

Construction of Underground tunnel and 4 metro stations in Reach 6 of Bangalore Metro Phase 2 project

Delhi Metro

KEC-CCECC JV

₹954.87 Cr.

Construction of elevated viaduct and 10 metro stations on Janakpuri West-RK Puram corridor (Line-8 Extn) of Delhi Metro Phase 4 project. (Package 1)

Kanpur Metro

KSM Bashir Mohammad & Sons

₹83.89 Cr.

Construction of Metro depot at Govt. Polytechnic for Line 1 of Kanpur Metro Rail project

Delhi Metro

KEC-CCECC JV

₹1080 Cr.

Construction of elevated viaduct and 8 metro stations on Majlis Park-Maujpur line of Delhi Metro Phase 4 project. (Package 2)

Delhi Metro

YFC Projects

₹726.08 Cr.

Construction of elevated viaduct, 6-lane flyover and 4 metro stations on Aerocity-Tughlakabad line of Delhi MRTS Phase 4 project. (Package 4)

Bangalore Metro

CRRC

₹854.95 Cr.

Supply of Rolling Stock trains (216 metro coaches) for Phase 2 of Bangalore Metro Rail project

Delhi Metro

HCC-VCCL JV

₹478.12 Cr.

Construction of twin tunnel including one underground metro station at Krishna Park Extn. (Package 6)

Chennai Metro

Nippon Koei-Aarvee Associate-BARSYL JV

₹348.1 Cr.

Consultancy services for execution of first section (Corridor 3 & 5) of Phase 2 of Chennai Metro Rail project.

RRTS

PORR Bau GmbH

₹348.1 Cr.

Track consultancy services for Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor of NCRTC

RRTS

L&T Construction

₹1797.0 Cr.

Construction of viaducts and 7 RRTS stations of Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor of NCRTC (Package 3)

16

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

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INFRA BUSINESS REPORT  Project Name

Contractor

Tender Value

Work

RRTS

L&T Infrastructure Engg.

₹6.75 Cr.

Consultancy services for design of three RRTS stations (Udyog Vihar, Sec-17, Rajiv Chowk) of Delhi-SNB-Alwar RRTS corridor

Patna Metro

AECOM JV

₹34.14 Cr.

Detailed Design Consultancy for Civil Construction of Corridor 1 & 2 of Phase I of Patna Metro Rail project

Patna Metro

Systra MVA

₹1.44 Cr.

Detailed Design Consultancy for Traction System of Corridor 1 & 2 of Phase I of Patna Metro Rail project

Delhi Metro

Systra MVA

₹21.16 Cr.

CBTC Consultancy for operation of RS10 Metro trains in Line 7 and Line 8 of Delhi Metro Rail network

Visakhapatnam Metro

UMTC

₹5.33 Cr.

Preparing DPR and providing transactional consultancy services for 33.5 km Visakapatnam Metro Rail project

Kolkata Metro

JSPL

NA

Supply of 2308 Tonnes Head-Hardened Rails for Kolkata Metro Rail project

Pune Metro

Honeywell Automation

₹76.33 Cr.

Supply of Telecommunication Systems for Pune Metro Rail project

RRTS

GR Infraprojects

₹592.17 Cr.

Construction of elevated viaducts including 3 stations (Udyog Vihar, Sec-17, Rajiv Chowk) of Delhi-SNB-Alwar RRTS corridor

Pune Metro

Swastik-URC-FabriykaBertolotti JV

₹110.0 Cr.

Supply of M&Ps for Vanaz and Range Hill Metro Car Shed for Pune Metro Rail project

Bangalore Metro

Siemens

₹250.90 Cr.

Supply of CBTC Signalling Solutions for Phase II of Bangalore Metro Rail project

RRTS

Bombardier Transportation

₹2577.0 Cr.

Supply of 210 Rolling Stock coaches and Depot M&Ps for DelhiMeerut RRTS corridor

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MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

17

SPECIAL COVERAGE 

Management of COVID-19 Guidelines for Public Transport Operators

T

hese guidelines have been prepared in the framework of the COVID 19 (coronavirus disease) outbreak. They aim to assist public transport operators in tailoring business continuity plans responding to the specific challenges of communicable diseases.

Context According to the WHO, the new coronavirus is a respiratory virus, which spreads primarily through contact with an infected person through respiratory droplets generated by coughing or sneezing, which can be inhaled or contaminate hands and surfaces. It is still unknown how the virus can survive on surfaces, but preliminary information suggests that it may last a few hours or more. Public transport systems have to be

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considered a high risk environment due to: • high number of people in a confined space with limited ventilation; • no access control to identify potentially sick persons; • a variety of common surfaces to touch (ticket machines, handrails, door knobs, etc.).

Public transport is an essential service to provide mobility, also in times of pandemics, not least to provide access to health care facilities. The key objective for public transport operators therefore has to be maintaining the operation.

Consequently, public transport operators should focus their pandemic plan efforts on staff, trying to protect them and preparing to deal with absenteeism.

Recommendations The most important recommendation is to follow the guidance of the competent authorities at all times and to scale up

measures according to the risk level.

Preparedness The recommendations on preparedness are suitable for all public transport networks, regardless of the level of threat currently faced.

It is important to acknowledge that pandemic planning is not a stand-alone project, but should be integrated with existing crisis management structures and procedures in order to be effective. It is crucial to involve business units directly into this planning, as they know best themselves, which are critical supplies, personnel or functions. It is advisable to involve unions into the planning and decision-making process at a very early stage; their true involvement can help to achieve an understanding and support for less popular measures.

• It is crucial to have identified essential functions within the organisation and provide separate facilities for them if

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

19

 SPECIAL COVERAGE needed; • It is advisable to develop an inventory of staff qualifications, licenses, etc. in order to identify employees, who could act as back up for critical positions. As many professional licenses are expiring without regular practice or reexamination, it is also important to check their validity and renew them if needed; • Review the stock and availability of essential protection and cleaning equipment and supplies and plan their distribution and refill; • Review stock and supply chains for operational material, such as fuel, lubricants or spare parts and investigate alternative suppliers if possible; • Staff information is a key element of communication planning and reassurance is needed, as a major disease outbreak will be a key topic within media and public discussion. It is considered a useful tool to develop a basic “questions and answers” section for the internal websites providing basic information for employees about the outbreak, its impact on the public transport systems and measures being taken.

• Follow related communications of the responsible authorities to stay informed on latest advise for your country or region.

Personal Protection Personal protection measures are suitable for all public transport networks regardless of risk level. Note that it may be useful to be seen to increase personal protection and hygiene measures to reassure both staff and passengers even if the risk is considered very low.

As a general measure, staff should be reminded of required basic rules of personal hygiene, which includes to regularly wash hands, to sneeze and cough into the elbow and to use paper towels. Information bulletins are widely available and should be displayed throughout the premises• Staff wash and dressing rooms, meeting rooms and offices should be equipped with hand disinfectants and paper tissues; • The effect of respiratory masks is debated. Public transport operators should obtain local and/or national advice on the use of masks and

20

recommended types of masks. General advice of the WHO is to wear masks when tending to an infected or potentially infected person; • Cleaning routines may have to be adapted and increased focus should be put on disinfecting common surfaces and spots to touch as well as waste disposal. For working places, where no cleaning may be possible between shifts, employees should be equipped with the necessary means and be made responsible to remove any waste and disinfect surfaces before taking over as part of the routine; • Staff that has to tend sick travellers, clean body fluids or potentially contaminated items and surfaces, should wear disposable gloves.

Reduction of Contact Reduction of contact measures are recommended if the risk level is high, for example confirmed outbreak in the area or a decision by the competent authorities.

Whilst hard to realise in the operational environment, the following options could be considered to reduce the exposure of public transport staff:

Reduced Service Reduced service measures may be required if the risk level is high, for example a confirmed outbreak in the area or a decision by the competent authorities.

If staff availability becomes too low to sustain regular operation, service should be reduced throughout the network as a pandemic is expected to affect a region without focus. It should be noted that such reduction of service will likely correspond with a reduced travel demand due to closing of schools and general advise to stay at home if possible.

• Operators have good experiences with the adoption of the weekend timetable as passengers are used to it and necessary announcements are already prepared, thus the service amendment might cause the minimal confusion; • Maintenance routines for equipment and rolling stock should be reviewed in order to identify the potential for advancing or delaying inspections; • Operators should seek contact with local authorities to align crisis plans as an epidemic might lead to limited availabilities on their side.

Closing Remarks

• Customer service staff should only be available in information booths or desks with sufficient distance to passengers; • Rear door boarding may temporarily replace the front door access of buses, in order to protect drivers that have no separate cabins; • The need for ticket inspection during an outbreak should be challenged. Ticket inspectors would be exposed to a very high risk of getting infected, whilst they may be valuable back-up staff for other critical positions; • Remote working should be considered for activities that could be carried out without physically being present in company premises. The stimulation of home working might further contribute to reducing contact and might allow working for employees, who have to take care of relatives at home but are not sick; • Replacing meetings by telephone conferences should reduce contact between employees, the closing of canteens may be considered.

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

Public transport is a backbone of local and national economy and an essential service to be maintained as long as reasonable. As of now, the COVID-19 outbreak has not been declared a pandemic, but as we see cases confirmed in a growing number of countries, the situation in any region can change rapidly.

Preparedness is thus the most helpful measure at this stage in most places.

It is important to follow the information given by WHO, staying in close contact with the national health organisations and authorities and following their guidelines. *** (These guidelines were issued by UITP)

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IMRT – India’s premier academy solely dedicated to Metro Metro & Rail Technology announces Admission Notice for

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 INTERVIEW

MAGRAIL: Hyper Poland developing the next generation of High Speed Railways (HSR) through Magrail Technology

H

yper Poland develops the next generation of High - Speed Railways (HSR), based on magnetic levitation, linear motor and autonomous control systems, which can be subsequently transformed into a vacuum version. It is the only company in the world able to gradually implement hyperloop-inspired solutions as an upgrade for the railway industry.

kph (373 mph) on existing conventional tracks and 1000 kph (621 mph) on HSR lines. Our last step will require new dedicated routes. These new corridors will enable the hyperloop to travel at up to 1,200 kph (746 mph). It will use subsystems tested in the first two generations.

Unique Technology

Capex for retrofitting railway infrastructure to a magrail standard is estimated to be approx. EUR 6-8 million per km, which is comparable to the cost of building a new highway and up to 6070% lower than the average cost of building a new HSR line in the European Union.

The company has developed a unique, patent-pending technology for a magrail system - a passive magnetic levitation train operating on existing conventional railway tracks at speeds of up to 300 kph (186 mph) and 415 kph (258 mph) on HSR lines. This hybrid solution allows for the functionality of both the magrail system and conventional trains on the same tracks (railway operators can depreciate their existing rolling stock). This can be subsequently transformed into a vacuum system - hyperrail, with a top speed of 600

22

USP - Magrail

Energy costs will be lower by approx.

13% for the speed of 300 kph (186 mph) compared to HSR, while for the speed of 415 kph (258 mph) magrail needs the same amount of energy that HSR currently for 300 kph (186 mph).

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

The maintenance costs will be approx.

25% lower than for HSR, due to elimination of friction of mechanical elements at high speeds.

Impact Hyper Poland’s technology will tremendously change transportation patterns by increasing the modal share of railways in transportation of goods and people, creating a completely new economic, social, and environmental landscape.

Hyper Poland was founded in 2017 and by mid-2019 it had submitted 8 patent applications. In the first half of 2019 it secured a EUR 3.8 million grant from the Polish National Center for Research and Development and a EUR 334k pre-seed round on a UK equity crowdfunding platform Seedrs.

A first full-scale prototype is planned to be delivered in mid-2021.

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INTERVIEW  Analysis at the Institute of Computer.

Q&A with Ms. Kasia Foljanty, Co-founder & CBO of Hyper Poland

Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with Utah Valley University, USA. Before joining Hyper Poland in 2016, I gained experience in design offices in Warsaw and Berlin and I was a scholarship holder of Polish and German research programs, which allowed me to work at leading research institutes in Germany specializing in civil engineering and transportation.

How did the idea of Hyper Poland come about?

Ms. Foljanty: Hyper Poland was initiated in 2015. Initially, it was an academic think-tank that consisted of students as well as scientists and alumni representing Warsaw University of Technology. Between 2015-2017 this team has been involved in various hyperloop competitions and was the finalist of two SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competitions initiated by Elon Musk. In 2016, I and Łukasz Mielczarek (current head of infrastructure) joined Hyper Poland. By broadening the skillset of Hyper Poland’s team with our expertise, we were able to win the BIM of Innovation Award at the Build Earth Live competition in Dubai. When Przemek Paczek (current CEO) joined Hyper Poland in late 2016, this academic think-tank turned into a company.

Simultaneously, our team has developed a unique three-stage approach to hyperloop technology development and in 2019 completed work on a 1:5 scale technology demonstrator, consisting of a 48-meter test track and a vehicle.

In a recent interaction with Urban Transport News team, Ms. Kasia Foljanty, Co-founder and CBO at Hyper Poland has talked about the vision, mission, and journey of the start-up working for advancing the speed of Railways. Here are the edited What is the MAGRAIL system? How excerpts:

this technology is different from Please tell us about your professional Hyperloop Technology? journey and what attracted you to Ms. Foljanty: The magrail system is a become a part of Hyper Poland? unique rail technology using magnetic Ms. Kasia Foljanty: I am a co-founder of levitation and operating on existing Hyper Poland and I am responsible for railway tracks at a speed of 300 km/h architectural design, urban planning, and (186 mph) - 415 km/h (258 mph).

Hyper Poland’s marketing, design, and public relations. Magnetic and vacuum Magrail can be subsequently transformed rail are no doubt the future of into a vacuum system - hyperrail, with a transportation and it was for me a natural top speed of 600 kph (373 mph) on step to move from transport research to existing conventional tracks and 1,000 kph (621 mph) on high-speed rail (HSR) the development of new technologies. lines. Our last step, hyperloop, will I have obtained a Ph.D. in Architecture require new dedicated routes. What and an MBA in Innovation and Data distinguishes this stage is that it requires a WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

vacuum environment, high speed of a vehicle (up to 1,200 km/h), and no contact with the ground during movement. In our case, it will use subsystems tested in the first two stages (magrail and hyperrail).

Please highlight some salient features of MAGRAIL technology.

Ms. Foljanty: Magrail is a magnetic railway transportation system that uses existing conventional railway corridors.

Both conventional trains and magnetic levitation vehicles will use the same railway track interchangeably.

The utilization of existing infrastructure saves costs incurred and time spent on the construction of new infrastructure.

Additionally, there is no need to adapt urban plans for new infrastructure. The magrail system can be fully integrated with existing railway infrastructure, without making any changes to the existing rolling stock.

With our magrail technology, we strive to radically transform the current transportation system. We aim at restoring the competitiveness of railways by combining high-speed, just-in-time availability, and environmental friendliness.

How do you aim to compete with companies like VHO, Hardt which are also launching similar projects?

Ms. Foljanty: Hyper Poland develops the next generation of High-Speed Railways. We are the only company globally that can gradually implement hyperloop-inspired solutions as an upgrade for the railway industry, using existing railway corridors and regulations.

On the other hand, we closely cooperate with other European hyperloop companies like Hardt, Zeleros, and Transpod. Recently and because of our joint involvement, the European Union has recognized hyperloop worthy of support. The member states where the European hyperloop companies are located have founded a Joint Technical Committee - JTC 20. Its goal is to create a homogenous system of ultra-high-speed transportation throughout the continent.

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

23

 INTERVIEW What innovations are you in the process of introducing through the project?

Ms. Foljanty: Magrail vehicles can reach high speeds due to the relatively low height and the low mass of the magrail vehicles and the use of unique technologies like magnetic levitation, electromagnetic linear motor, and special tilting mechanism.

How COVID-19 Pandemic is affecting the deadline for launching your project?

Ms. Foljanty: Transportation infrastructure is a vital part of all economic and social ecosystems. People and businesses will always need it.

Developing new ways of more efficient use of existing railway infrastructure in a more innovative way is key for bringing the global economy to the next level and revitalize it after the turmoil.

Given the time needed for development, testing and certification, the current collapse has no direct impact on the outlook for magrail technology (and in future hyperloop). Despite - quite probable according to today's forecasts - a

period of several years of "catching up" of demand by air transport - the most likely scenario remains a return to the trend line assuming a systematic increase in the mobility of societies. What's more, a possible period of several years of the economic slowdown caused by the crisis may lead to the suspension of some investment projects, including in high-

speed railway lines. As a result, magrail technology will "gain" time and may be ready to be introduced when the infrastructure industry begins the "catching up" period after a few years of slower investment pace. ***

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ď ľď ˇ OPINION

COVID-19 and its effects on Rail and Transport Industry

M.C. Chauhan, IRSEE (Retd.)

Ex-General Manager NCR & Kolkata Metro

T

he COVID - 19 is poised to become one of the most severe public health and economic crisis the World has faced in the 21st century. Along with the sweeping loss of human lives and labour productivity, the virus is likely to impact various sectors and general lifestyle over a long term.

Most estimates show a significant contraction of the level of output in the financial year 2020-21. The corona virus outbreak will impact individual behavior pertaining to the way we work, consume and travel.

26

The combination of policies ranging from social distancing to lockdowns are expected to slow down or even completely stop production and consumption activities for an uncertain period of time, and cause businesses in the hospitality and retail sector to close.

Many states in India have closed their borders and the Central government has imposed a curfew nationwide resulting in sharp reductions in transport demand.

Public transport (railways, metros, airlines & buses) and shared mobility services (e.g. auto rickshaws, and Uber/Ola taxis) are vectors for distribution of the virus and will be severely affected by continued norms of social distancing.

Despite the perceived risk and reduction in uptake of public transport presently, the sector needs to be encouraged in the aftermath of the virus for efficient movement of masses and reducing carbon emission. In this article I describe the effects of COVID-19 on the transport sector during and post lockdown, and a

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

long-term action plan to augment the capacity of Public Transport for growth and handling such crises in the future.

Effects of COVID-19 on Transport during Lockdown

Public

All modes of public transport are suffering severe losses due to their limited (if any) operability during the lockdown.

The Indian Railways have stopped all passenger train services during the lockdown period and limited its freight train services with reduction in demand of bulk commodities such as steel and cement, and disruption in supply chains.

At present, the freight trains are plying at about 60% of their capacity. They have been particularly affected by a 26% reduction in coal-based power generation in India (Aggarwal, 2020) since the lockdown began. The Indian Railways is the primary mover of coal from collieries to coal based thermal power stations. It is estimated that Indian Railways will lose around Rs.12,500 crore - Rs.6500 crore from passenger traffic & Rs.6000 crore WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

OPINION ď ˇď ľ from freight services (Moneycontrol, 2020).

Grounding of all international and domestic flights is expected to result in a loss of about 3-3.6 billion USD for the Indian aviation industry in the June quarter (Khindu, 2020).

Within cities, local transit operators such as metros, city buses, auto/e-rickshaws, taxis and cab aggregators have also stopped operations. Urban freight segments in India have had a mixed short-term effect in terms of transportation demand. Since February, online food orders have dropped considerably, whereas online grocery orders are overflowing.

The higher costs for frequent cleaning of vehicles and facilities have increased fixed costs and imposed an additional financial strain on all Public Transport companies at a time when there are zero revenues from passenger transport.

logistics operation and offering to increase their cargo movements during this pandemic. Air India, Indigo, Spice jet and Blue Dart have contributed to supply essential medical goods to places in need. Efforts by Air India to bring back stranded Indians from China, Japan, Italy and Iran to India during the pandemic are laudable. In Delhi, 25% of the DTC buses continued to ply to facilitate the movement of people involved in essential services (The Economic Times b, 2020).

Effects of COVID-19 Transport Post Lockdown

on

will now be a more accepted and common part of professions in the service sector, reducing daily commuters. In addition, travel outside the city or country for meetings and conferences is expected to fall, and be replaced by online meetings and video conferences.

To address the shift in commuters’ behaviour and to regain their confidence in public transport, it is essential for public transport companies to undertake measures to safeguard the safety of commuters and vehicle operators.

Public Plan for measures

Even as public transport services are expected to resume in the coming month, it is unlikely for the threat of the virus to subside so quickly. With development of an effective vaccine still work in progress, the fear of contracting the virus along with government recommendations to exercise social distancing will affect the mode of transport people choose and

Coordinated

Effective

In anticipation of similar health risks and for the sake of improved public health and hygiene, transport departments and companies should plan for the safety of the staff and passengers by adopting the following measures.

First, staff should be equipped with protection gear such as face masks, hand sanitizers and gloves. Second, proper disinfecting procedures should be created and the staff trained on the same. The hygiene of public transport stations and vehicles should be monitored with routine inspections. Third, an antiviral/anti-bacterial coating of all frequently touched surfaces within trains, stations, aircrafts, buses and taxis should be done. Fourth, reduce human contact through digital ticketing and verification procedures in all public transport systems. Fifth, increase distance between passengers to minimise the risk on infections. Reducing occupancy of public transport vehicles is an important step in this direction. In order to help reduce congestion during peak hours, All kinds of public transport are suspended in India till May 17, 2020 due to COVID-19 outbreak. government and corporate offices should stagger their work timings, encourage Despite the acute strain on the different how frequently they travel. On the one virtual meetings & conferences and work services, the public transport sector has hand, commuters might avoid crowded from home. chipped in to help combat the crisis in modes of transport such as buses, metros commendable ways. In addition to and trains; and the perceived health risks These steps will help in building ramping up parcel trains for movement of might incentivise use of personal confidence among commuters and essential commodities (Press Information vehicles. This would increase traffic recovering demand for these services.

Bureau, 2020), the Indian Railways (IR) congestion and vehicular pollution. On have provided isolation beds in about the other hand, the demand for transport Long Term Action Plan for Future 5000 coaches for suspected coronavirus will reduce as consumers are expected to Growth and to cope with similar crisis infected patients across the country and avoid visits to shopping complexes and intend to increase this to 3.2 lakh movie theatres, eating out; and opt While the pandemic has severely isolation beds in 20,000 coaches (The instead to shop online, stream movies impacted the transport sector, the Economic Times a, 2020). Most of the online and order food through delivery government should consider investing in Indian airlines are also helping with apps. The practice of working from home increasing capacity of public transport for WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

27

 OPINION the following reasons. First, it would create jobs and help revive the economy and tackle unemployment in the aftermath of the virus. Second, public transport is key to improving air pollution by reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and road accidents in cities.

As per the statistics published by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (2018), 17,709 deaths were recorded in 2018 from road accidents in million-plus cities.

Therefore, I recommend the following ways to improve capacity of the Public Transport sector. First, augment the rail network (with speed potential of 160-200 km/h) in high density corridors, especially on golden quadrilateral routes (which carry more than 55% of total traffic of Indian Railways). This will reduce overcrowding of trains on these oversaturated routes. Second, expand the suburban railway networks in metropolitan cities, particularly in Mumbai. The Mumbai suburban railway carries 7.5 million commuters per day and is one of the busiest commuter rail system in the world. During peak hours, these trains carry 14 to 16 passengers per square metre of floor space while the recommended capacity is of four passengers per square metre. It is, therefore, imperative to expedite the execution of works under Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) Phase 3 & 3A, to reduce peak hour loads in suburban trains. Third, develop the Regional Rapid Transit Systems (RRTS) connecting regional centres for improved mobility of commuters and to decongest the overcrowded cities.

Fourth, construction or expansion of metros in million plus cities, along with induction of electric bus fleets that will lead to faster movement of masses with less crowding and reduce the pollution level.

Fifth, incorporating cycling/walking lanes in planning urban transport network for last mile connectivity. Sixth, digitalisation of public transport system in major cities to improve ticketing and real time ride information.

I’ll conclude by echoing the words of Rahm Emanuel, White house Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama, "Never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before”. COVID 19 provides a much needed opportunity

28

People prefers using cycling in London to prevent spread of COVID-19 outbreak.

to Railways and Public Transport companies to provide long-term oriented competitive, comfortable, reliable, sustainable and safe public transport for India’s future growth by improving safety and hygiene protocols, increasing frequency while reducing occupancy, and switching completely to e-payments and automated ticket checking. ***

About The Author Mr. M.C. Chauhan, IRSEE and Ex-GM NCR Railway and Kolkata Metro possesses over 37 years of experience with the Indian Railways (IR), 4th largest Railway network in the world with 1.3 million employees which includes Management, Railway operations, project planning/ approval/execution of major infrastructural projects for capacity expansion, operation & maintenance of metro & EMU train services, induction of new technology, strategic policy planning, financial management, innovative solutions to resolve complex problems.

He is a senior member of Editorial Advisory Board of Urban Transport News and Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine.

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

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PRESENTS

RIMBDA 2020 RAIL INFRA AND MOBILITY BUSINESS DIGITAL AWARDS 2020

An initiative to recognise and honour the best industry performers of the world Objective With the aims to provide extreme recognition to the industry and leaders for their extraordinary contribution towards infrastructure development in the world through their innovative ideas, products and services, Urban Transport News in association with Indian Association of Urban Rail and Mobility Industry (IAURMI) is announcing Rail Infra and Mobility Business Awards 2020 (RIMBDA 2020).

Benefits No doubt this platform would be an exclusive opportunity for the industry and leaders to showcase their innovative strength and achievements before the world which will help them to add value in their brand.

In short, at the RIMBDA 2020 you can• Brand visibility: Showcase your innovative products and services before the right audience.

• Recognition: Get recognised for contributing to the industry through innovative ideas, products and services.

About the Awards The Rail Infra and Mobility Business Digital Awards will be given in a total of 31 categories to the selected individuals and corporate leaders from the industry. The winners will be awarded with an artistic trophy along with “Certificate of Appreciation” digitally signed by our Editorial Advisory Board or Managing Editor of Urban Transport News publications. However, non-winner participants will also received a digitally signed “Certificate of Participation”. The profile of winners will be featured in our next issues of Urban Transport Infrastructure Magazine as well as our news portal.

AWARD CATEGORIES Individual 1. Rail Business Leader of the Year 2. Infra Business Leader of the Year 3. Mobility Business Leader of the Year 4. Urban Infra Architect of the Year 5. Railway Innovator of the Year 6. Transport Researcher of the Year 7. Young Researcher of the Year 8. Infra Man of the Year 9. Infra Woman of the Year Corporate Category Rail Business 1. Mass Rapid Transit Project of the Year 2. Rail Solution Provider of the Year 3. Rail Business Start-up of the Year

Infra Business 1. Infra Solution Provider of the Year 2. Tunneling Solution Provider of the Year 3. Infra Business Start-up of the Year 4. M&P Solution Provider of the Year

Consultancy Business 1. DPR Consultant of the Year 2. Project Management Consultant of the Year 3. Infra Designer & Architecture of the Year 4. Rail & Transport Training Provider of the Year 5. Transport Research Institute of the Year 6. PR Solution Provider of the Year 7. Security Solution Provider of the Year 8. Digital Solution Provider of the Year

Mobility Business 1. Bus Transit Project of the Year 2. Green Mobility Project of the Year 3. Shared Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 4. Micro-Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 5. E-Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 6. App-based Mobility Solution Provider of the Year 7. Mobility Business Start-up of the Year

Scan Code to know more:

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NOMINATIONS GUIDELINES • Nominations are open to all irrespective of size of business.

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• The nomination received from the blacklisted company will not be entertained and the nomination registration fee will not be refunded at any circumstances.

• The winners will be selected by a team of industry experts and our editorial advisory board.

IMPORTANT DATES Start Date of Nomination: 15th May 2020 Last Date of Nomination: • For Individual Category: 15th June 2020 • For Corporate Category: 25th June 2020 Announcement of Winner • For Individual Category: 30h June 2020 • For Corporate Category: 5th July 2020 Read more: https://tinyurl.com/yaqu6oyv

How to submit nominations • Step 1: Make payment of Nomination Fee • Step 2: Fill Nomination Form Online • Step 3: Get confirmation on E-mail (Payment invoice will be issued to all successful entries.)

 INTERVIEW

We believe it is important to continue with developing our products to be demand-responsive so that we can cater to a variety of demand patterns.

Grace Ho, President SWAT Mobility, Singapore

development through cross-team collaboration. Incidentally, I also developed a passion for building teams and helping shape someone’s career journey.

SWAT Mobility is a smart mobility solution firm that provides demandresponsive and ride-sharing technology in high capacity vehicles. With the belief that efficient transport is a fundamental right, it endeavors to use its core mobility engine to improve the way people commute, ease congestion, and improve their quality of life.

In a recent interaction with Urban Transport News team, Ms. Grace Ho, newly appointed President of SWAT Mobility has talked about the vision, mission and journey of the firm from Singapore to other countries. Here are the edited excerpts: Congratulations on your appointment as President of SWAT Mobility. Please give us some background as to your own career and what attracted you to join SWAT Mobility?

Thank you! It is such a privilege to be a part of SWAT Mobility’s young,

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energetic and talented team; and truly exciting to have the opportunity to make an impact on mobility and transport solutions, which are essential services in our daily lives!

My professional experience has been with technology multinationals. Having helmed a variety of leadership roles in sales, marketing and strategy at Microsoft, SAP, IBM and Motorola, I have been fortunate to develop a broad set of skills and experience that are relevant in supporting business transformation and growth agendas.

In the recent years of my career, I have had the opportunity to take on transformational leadership roles at large corporates, where my responsibility was to re-architect the go-to-market strategy, which included building new partners in the ecosystem, focussing on industry and solutions selling and developing talent and human capital. Through these experiences, I learned a lot about growing a business through the shifting of business models, scaling through partnerships and accelerating talent

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

When I was presented the opportunity to join SWAT Mobility, I was very excited, because I saw an opportunity for me to contribute to a young company on an aggressive growth path.

More importantly, as a start-up, SWAT Mobility has the ideal environment where I can concurrently perform a variety of roles (from helping the teams prospect new customers to implementing business continuity plans) and in the process, help accelerate the development of the talented team into well-rounded leaders. It has been six wonderful months at SWAT Mobility and while the teams are learning about growing the business from me, I truly believe that I have the lion’s share of the learning, as the teams continue to teach me about new ways of work, new tools and work-fun-life integration!

Tell us about SWAT Mobility and its role in the public transportation sector.

In recent years, we have seen growing interest by Public Transport providers to explore on-demand transport services as one of the ways to improve commute experience, while increasing operational efficiency.

SWAT Mobility was selected to participate in an on-demand bus trial by WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

INTERVIEW  Singapore’s Land Transport Authority in the Marina-Downtown area. This trial ran from 2018-2019 and our technology and algorithm were used to optimise public bus resources while improving service levels during off-peak hours.

Another example is last year, SWAT Mobility deployed an on-demand service in Sydney, Australia. This service is deployed in partnership with a local fleet partner. Sydney’s on-demand public bus service is designed to connect suburban residents to the new Sydney metro rail stations near them. Our work involves constant close collaboration with the government, particularly in adapting to the changing needs of the residents. For example, with the COVID-19 situation, we have re-designed the service to connect residents to essential services such as hospitals and shopping centres in the area.

With the advent of smart cities initiatives in the region, coupled with growing investments in the Internet-of-Things (IoT) to improve customer experiences, we are optimistic that public transport will transform. We expect to see ondemand transport services as a way of life in the near future and our technology is ready and adaptable to manage different demand patterns and even centrally managed autonomous vehicles (AV) when they hit the roads.

Tell our readers about the salient features of products and services being offered by SWAT Mobility.

SWAT Mobility’s business model is Business-to-Business (B2B) and Businessto-Government (B2G), hence it is essential that our solutions are demandresponsive. We have four product lines (Commute Pass, Just-In-Time, OnDemand and Digital Transport) and each one is designed to cater to a particular demand pattern, user experience and service design.

In our B2G business, our experience working with governments has focussed on solving the first mile/last mile challenges and/or low ridership problem.

In our B2B business, for corporations with a large workforce, our solution helps with employee retention by providing better transport arrangements for them, especially for companies located remotely or operating at odd hours.

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In addition to our On-Demand transport solution, another popular product is Justin-Time, which caters to changing shift patterns. People getting off their shift only need to request a ride 15 minutes before ride time. Our algorithm will pool the people living close-by and assign the appropriate vehicles to them. Conversely, manual planning of transportation for these employees takes a lot of time, effort and resources to coordinate and is also prone to human error. With our technology, the process is streamlined, there is transparency for both the fleet operator and the company and billing is easily reconciled based on who took the transport.

the ultimate travel experience and seamless transportation?

It starts with our product design philosophy: we believe it is important to continue with developing our products to be demand-responsive so that we can cater to a variety of demand patterns.

Fast time-to-market is also essential and our teams are agile and competent with rapid deployments, for example adapting our solution for clients with new requirements to support their BCP. From our experience deploying solutions in various countries, we have learned that incorporating a human element in system design is important. From both the driver and passenger perspectives, there are certain preferences that can only be derived from on the ground experience.

For example, our algorithm would provide the shortest walking path for a passenger to get from the drop off point to their home. In reality, the passenger might request a different stop which would require a longer walk, but it is more well-lit at night or does not require the person to cross the road.

Another product, Commute Pass, is perfect for regular schedules, such as employees working from 9 am to 5 pm (for instance) requiring rides at the same time every day. In this case, an employee only needs to reserve a ride before the month starts and is guaranteed to get a ride every day to and from work and enjoys the reliability of arrival time to work as well. This is made possible through our algorithm which determines the best routes and combination of Adopting a customer-centric approach is essential. Particularly during deployment, vehicles to transport the workforce. we work closely with our clients and their How are your App-based Mobility employees to gather feedback on the service, utilise data to fine-tune the Services different from others?

Our core technology is a dynamic high- service and constantly upgrade our capacity pooling algorithm, which allows algorithm, apps and service parameters to us to pool riders efficiently and this improve service levels. equips us to move people in both the Overall, it is a continuous learning and public and private sectors efficiently. improvement process for us, and we In addition, we provide a platform that continue to work closely with our has an integrated suite of systems, customers to incorporate their feedback consisting of a Passenger mobile App, to improve our product and service so as Driver mobile App and Operations to constantly deliver a great customer Interface. The interoperability of these commute experience. applications enable real-time communication between all parties and What are the future expansion plans of provides the ability to dynamically SWAT Mobility in other countries reconfigure travel routes to adapt to outside of Singapore? changing conditions. Our Operations SWAT Mobility currently has operations Interface is able to provide real-time in Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore monitoring, service setups, reporting and and Vietnam. We will continue to grow analysis of travel journeys. With the our customer footprint in these countries, recent COVID-19 situation, this particularly in transport solutions for capability has enabled us to help our large corporations and on-demand public customers with split shift planning as part transport solutions. In parallel, we see of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) growth opportunities in China, Thailand and contact tracing of passengers and the Philippines and we look forward to scaling our business through our onboard a vehicle.

Partner ecosystem.

What measures will you take to ensure *** MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

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 OPINION

guidelines and compares them with global norms in post-COVID 19 cities.

Immediate steps to take to restart city transport services

Steps to restart public transit after lockdown ends of schedule in an unhampered manner.

Amruta Ponkshe Associate Fellow Observer Research Foundation

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he nation - wide lockdown announced on 24 March has proven to save lives against the COVID-19. The halting of public transport services, restricted mobility and the curfew announced in certain areas of the country did restrict the spread of disease, but it also brought about untold economic hardships on several sections of society, where the most vulnerable have been the worst affected. Crucial transport services ferrying medical and frontline workers proved to be a boon in these testing times. The lockdown also aided the Indian Railways to complete its premonsoon maintenance works well ahead

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As we are set to lift the lockdown by 17 May 2020, in most urban areas of the country, we face a huge risk — to run public transport services in denselypacked cities means risking the spread of COVID-19. In this regard, it is necessary to prioritise what should get access to road first. We need to examine how public transport is vital to keep the city running and how it enables the neediest to access the city’s services. In the last two decades, the number of cars on Indian roads has gone up exponentially. Maximum road space in Indian cities is occupied by less than 20 percent people who own private vehicles.

As more cars and private vehicles come on roads, the capacity of our security systems to ensure law and order on public roads will decrease. Conversely, only managing public transport routes will ensure access to maximum people with a minimum on-ground security personnel. Hence, it is necessary to detail the steps that our transit agencies can take in the face of the restart after 17 May 2020. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)’s Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) has recently published ‘Guidelines for Public Transport and Feeder Modes considering Social Distancing Norms.’ Part-II of this series takes a detailed look at these

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In the face of risks presented by COVID19, the World Health Organisation (WHO) provides guidelines for international travellers. It does not have any advice for local travel, except an ‘interim guidance’ sheet published in 2014, to update public transport authorities against the Ebola virus disease. The International Association of Public Transport (UITP), on the other hand, has published detailed guidelines for public transport agencies across the world to adopt and adhere to, so that it can ensure lifeline transit services are unaffected during the shutdowns in response to COVID-19.

The World Resources Institute, has provided a rundown of measures that cities all over the world can take. In addition to the guidelines prescribed by these international agencies, Indian public transit agencies need to have special measures to ensure that adequate precautions are taken to address local conditions. A brief outline of the proposed guidelines is given here: 1.

Crowd control and scheduling

Phased resumption: The restart for city public transport such as trains and buses cannot happen all at once. It needs to be done in a phased manner. Initially, holiday schedules or schedules like those of mega-block days can work to transport only medical and frontline service people from their work to home and back. This will minimise non-essential travel and still provide options for people stranded away from their homes.

Queue control: In addition to this, queues will have to be strictly organised, controlled by numbers and maintained to get on trains, metro and buses. To control queues in the initial few days or weeks, the railways may have to engage services of a large number of security personnel, the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) may be called on to extend reinforcements in addition to the existing Railway Protection Force cadres. One thing that can be done, across transit WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

OPINION  modes is to issue tickets to only 50 percent of the coach or overall train/bus occupancy with physical distancing being maintained on seats.

Restricted access: Since entry and exit points of railway stations are fixed and relatively narrow on most stations, entry can be controlled by ensuring that a total of a fixed number of people get access to the station at any given point of time.

Once the train is full and has left the station, the next batch of people can enter through the restricted entry gates. After the initial month or so — of only point to point services, instead of halting at all stations, trains can halt at key junctions with maximum overlaps or access to surrounding business/commercial districts and vice-versa during the peak schedules. These scheduled departures can be reversed in the evening times.

Thus, restricted access to railway stations and buses by controlling entry and exit points, controlled ticketing via mobile and e-ticketing, and a restricted schedule running services on select routes at select times depending on user demand will help essential workers access train and bus services, simultaneously partly dissuading non-essential travel.

2. Conversion of road worldwide best practices

travel,

Many cities across the world are coming up with novel methods to ensure sustained mobility in face of the COVID19 lockdowns. The classic ‘Avoid-ShiftImprove’ principle to ensure sustainable transportation is being applied with renewed enthusiasm to public transport in post COVID-19 cities. Avoiding travel at all — travel only when absolutely necessary. This has translated into cities such as Lagos, London, Singapore, Berlin having issued detailed guidelines, directives and relief packages for the transit industry. At the same time, these cities have re-scheduled, cancelled or grounded several train and bus services and continue to appeal to their citizens to avoid travel unless absolutely necessary.

Shifting travel modes from cramped, closed environments such as a shared taxi or a crowded bus, to open, more accessible and cost-effective ways such as walking, bicycling and other low-carbon options such as e-bikes and e-scooter options are gaining acceptance WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

worldwide. In China, post the initial wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, cycling demand went up. In Australia, the sixmonth lockdown has led to soaring bicycle sales. In Berlin, two new bike lanes have opened up. Brussels, Belgium and Oakland, California, have recently opened up their streets to cyclists and pedestrians. Oakland closed nearly 120 km of its roads to cars and automobiles and opened them to cyclists and pedestrians instead. The fallout of the COVID-19 crisis has led to an increase in the number of reckless driving cases.

Therefore, some cities are taking the ‘slow streets’ movement seriously. Long advocated by urban planners and environmentalists, the forced lockdown and the subsequent shutdown of parks and recreational spaces has resulted in some cities opening up their streets to the concept of slow and sustainable mobility.

from the commuters on buses. Alternate vacant seats will ensure physical distancing, and the placement can be decided by each public transport agency on its own as per their internal design regulations.

How this would work in dense Indian cities is left to the ingenuity of its planners and implementation experts, but a few Indian cities such as Coimbatore, are showing the way to do it. Improving fuel efficiency and overall sustainability of transport can be adopted by ensuring that trips made during the post COVID19 phase utilise the most fuel efficient and low carbon modes such as e-bus and hybrid fuel models available to commuters.

In the initial stages of resuming services in the aftermath of COVID-19, it is essential to follow these measures.

However, they should be complemented by other, city-wide resolutions. Banning private vehicles travelling for nonessential purposes could be ensured using an e-pass issued for essential travel (for medical reasons). Paratransit such as auto-rickshaws and taxis, shared mobility and cab aggregator providers should have restricted access to city roads for some more time until there is no more community transmission in India. Traffic control and infection prevention will become even trickier if private cars and paratransit would be allowed to freely operate on Indian roads. There are a few organisations, corporates and service providers providing emergency medical and non-medical transit options to Indian cities. These should be replicated across the country.

3. Cleanliness and hygiene in public transport Sanitise: Special precautions will have to be taken to ensure surface cleaning and sanitisation of all coaches and buses after every trip and a deep sanitisation at the end of the day.

Protect: In addition, care should be taken to ensure safety of public transport staff.

Compulsory use of masks to avoid spread of disease should be adopted across all public transport modes in all cities. To ensure commuters follow safe physical distancing practices, security personnel can be appointed to be present on trips with heavy demand. In places where this is not possible, use of CCTV cameras and thermal cameras can be adopted and increased on public transport to enforce safe physical distancing. Transit staff should be trained to minimise interaction with commuters and temporary barricading can work to separate drivers

E-ticketing: Mobile and app-based ticketing will minimise manual interactions, exchange of cash and therefore, could minimise the spread of the virus. Though mobile and e-ticketing apps are available through major transport operators in big cities, the COVID-19 aftermath could see a huge increase in the adoption of these services by commuters if enforced as the sole method to obtain tickets. This also reduces the necessity of bus conductors, particularly on single origin-destination routes without intermittent stops, as prescribed above.

Going by the death toll and rising numbers of infection in other densely populated cities such as New York and Singapore, it looks like the fight against COVID-19 has just begun in Indian cities. It is better to avoid travel now, than risk increasing infections later. *** Views are personal. This article first published in ORF’s online blog.

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ď ľď ˇ RAIL MARKET INSIGHTS

Rolling Stock Market Performance: How COVID19 affects differently in price-sensitive vs. qualitysensitive

Bedy Kharisma Data and Business Analyst Global Rail Market

can be segmented into two categories: the price-sensitive market and the qualitysensitive market. The price-sensitive market is characterized by its no preference in selecting the rolling stock manufacture as long as it meets the budget. Another characteristic that can be observed in the price-sensitive market is that it doesn't require rolling stock with top-notch technology.

Hence the application of newly developed technology of rolling stock is seldom observed here. The technology adopted in this market is somewhat lacking in comparison with the quality sensitive market, or at least in number.

While the quality-sensitive market shows a dominant preference in selecting the rolling stock manufacture, often, this market preference is limited to top rolling stock manufacture. In terms of technology, it often buys the rolling stock with state of the art rolling stock. It is thus making this market open to a new possibility of deploying new technology, for example, the application of hybrid and battery technology rolling stock.

The contrast of the price-sensitive market vs. quality sensitive market can be seen in this tornado chart as follows:

T

his article discusses the performance of the rolling stock market in dealing with a crisis: a crisis that we all now face, the COVID-19 pandemic. By observing the market trend during the crisis, the time when the pandemic hit the most, which is the first quarter of 2020. The market performance is then put into comparison with what it usually looks like before the crisis, in the last five years.

In addition, this article also observes how the pandemic affects differently in the two types of markets. The two markets discussed in this article segment the market into two broad categories from its buying preference, instead of from a regional-based perspective.

In general, the rolling stock market based on its behavior/buying preference

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Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

(The contrast of price-sensitive vs. quality sensitive market (Fig. 1)

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RAIL MARKET INSIGHTS ď ˇď ľ While the distribution of the pricesensitive and quality-sensitive market is shown in a map (Fig. 2) as follows:

further. Should it stay in a red ocean market defined with its price war or moving into a blue ocean market in

In contrast with the quality-sensitive market, the performance of the first quarter in a quality-sensitive market is shown in Fig. 4.

By comparing those two market performance, we learned that the qualitysensitive market is more sustainable in times of crisis. The quality sensitive market shows a rather stable number of cars ordered in the first quarter in the last five years' performance compared to what happens in a price-sensitive market. Sure, the number of cars ordered is declined both in price-sensitive and quality sensitive market, but the decline in quality sensitivity is not as severe in the price-sensitive market. And in the quality sensitive market, the number of cars ordered is ridiculously higher than in a price-sensitive market.

(Fig. 2)

(Fig. 3)

By observing how the market reacts during a crisis benefits a rolling stock manufacturer.

The rolling stock manufacturer will be able to see which market will sustain in time of crisis and which one is not. Thus, this will give a guideline on developing the company WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

which the competition in terms of quality is fierce?

The market performance in the first quarter in the last 5 years in a pricesensitive market can be seen in Fig 3.

Since the type of rolling stock is various, the number of rolling stock will not reflect the same trend if the trends are seen in terms of value. Thus, the trend in term of value in a price-sensitive and quality-sensitive market is shown in Fig. 5 and Fig. 6.

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ď ľď ˇ RAIL MARKET INSIGHTS

(Fig. 4)

After the market trends are shown using a value perspective, the same conclusion can be derived. In the price-sensitive market, the market performance drops to its lowest in the last five years. While in the quality-sensitive market, the value even grows higher compared with the Q1 2019 performance. This concludes that the quality sensitive market seems to be least affected in times of crisis relatively compared to the price-sensitive market.

(Fig. 5)

Having said so, a rolling stock manufacturer in a quality sensitive market seems to sustain relatively to those manufacturers who are struggling in the price-sensitive market. This also emphasizes that in the price-sensitive market, the manufacturer, aside from facing the price war, the manufacturer also faced with a fluctuating market which sensitive to a crisis. ***

(Fig. 6)

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Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

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KNOWLEDGE SERIES ď ˇď ľ

Creating a Sustainable Rail Network: Sustainability, New Energy sources and Renewable by implementing technologies to optimize energy usage

their tiredness and to keep them awake.

These songs depict the people traditions values at that time and acting as a song that echoes the cultural history of any country.

Transportation is a non-separable part of any society. It exhibits a very close relation to the style of life, the range and location of activities and the goods and services which will be available for consumption.

Advances in transportation has made possible changes in the way of living and the way in which societies are organized and therefore have a great influence in the development of civilizations

Rail transport or train transport is a means of transferring passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are located on tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles (rolling stock) are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run.

Tracks usually consist of steel rails, installed on ties (sleepers) set in ballast, on which the rolling stock, usually fitted with metal wheels, moves. Other variations are also possible, such as slab track. This is where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface.

On the other hand, transportation is responsible for the development of civilizations from very old times by meeting travel requirement of people and transport requirement of goods. Such movement has changed the way people live and travel. In developed and developing nations, a large fraction of people travel daily for work, shopping and social reasons.

Rolling stock in a rail transport system generally encounters lower frictional resistance than rubber-tired road vehicles, so passenger and freight cars (carriages and wagons) can be coupled into longer trains. The operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric

Importance of Transport culture

A Lakshami Narayanan Senior Environmental Health Expert

F

rom the ancient time, transport has played a major role in the culture of any Nation and with the help of transport huge cultural transportation occurred in many countries and hence the lives of any nations’ were embedded with transport hence we cannot undermine the importance of transport culture Our great grandfathers used to transport goods from carts while singing folk songs.

They used folk songs as a way to reduce

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Rail Transport

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 KNOWLEDGE SERIES power from a railway electrification system. Most tracks are accompanied by a signaling system. Railways are a safe land transport system when compared to other forms of transport. Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency.

Sustainability, New energy sources and renewable in Rail In recent years, we have talked a lot about Investment, Capacity and Connectivity…

For sure, there is a huge amount happening in Rail under each of these themes…

But, I believe, that Rail transport getting revitalized as a continual improvement to have a railway that is not just highcapacity and well connected…

Any Railway system must have been adhered for • • • •

Resource Efficiency Water Efficiency Reduction in Emission Ambient Air Quality

Operation phase activities have the potential to cause environmental damage. Metro rail will ensure that such procedures and control measures are in place that safeguard the environment.

We shall strive to…

• Complied with all relevant environmental legislation and regulations and other environmental initiatives to which we subscribe.

• Minimize negative impacts we may have on the environment, through efficient uses of resources and reduction in emissions and waste.

• Raise environmental awareness, provide training and integrate environmental protection procedures into day to day operations.

• Ensure this policy is actively followed by our contractors and sub-contractors.

Sustainability in motion policy:

Water Policy

Energy management policy:

Metro rail corporation, in keeping with the objectives of national water mission to conserve water, minimize wastage and ensure equitable distribution commits itself to manage water resource for better efficiency and sustainable consumption.

We are committed to provide clean and comfortable public transport network in our country and to be the lowest energy consumer in transportation sector on likewise basis: • Assuring compliance of all relevant legislation and other requirements related to energy consumption, its use and energy efficiency • Encourage the use of renewable energy sources to the extent it is economically viable • Benchmark energy consumptions • Optimize energy consumption and reduce GHG. • Control and monitor energy consumption by periodic review and improve energy performance through an effective energy management system

In this endeavor, we shall strive to Noise reduction by improving cuttingedge technology and so that the Railway system is fully, sustainably, integrated…

It means, Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs...System policies are for achieving sustainability in rail…

• • • • • • •

Environmental Policy Water Policy Waste management Policy Quality Policy Solar Policy Sustainability in Motion Policy Energy Management Policy

• Measure the water consumption to put it in public domain.

• Benchmark water usages for different purposes and minimize wastage by carrying out periodically water audits • Provide recycling from our STP and ETP and reuse the effluent to the extent possible.

• Increase the existing recharge quantity from rainwater harvesting Waste management policy

System Policies

It is to be considered that today’s waste as tomorrow’s raw material. Identify, reduce, reuse, recycle, recovery and dispose of hazardous waste and e-waste as per statutory stipulations.

Environmental policy

Quality policy

Any Railway System including ‘Metro Rail ‘recognizes the paramount importance of protecting the environment and that without appropriate procedures and control measures, construction phase

Demonstrate its commitment towards customer delight by arranging regular / annual customer satisfaction services.

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Seek a long-term sustainable solution to meet its energy needs and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Put in place an appropriate investment climate, that could leverage the clean development mechanism and renewable energy certificate.

Solar Policy

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We shall strive to work towards • Adopt best available practices in every maintenance activity to improve quality of services • Timely delivery of services to achieve commuter’s satisfaction • Prevention of pollution, injury and ill health by adopting suitable policies, processes and procedures • Consideration of energy efficient, environment friendly, health and safety issues in operation and maintenance

Understanding Energy efficient building architecture Green Building A green building is one which uses less water, optimizes energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste and provides healthier spaces for occupants, as compared to a conventional building Green Building Council of any Nation is leading green building movement in the country.

Although new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

 KNOWLEDGE SERIES practices in creating greener structures, the common objective of green buildings is to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment by: • Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources • Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity • Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation Main design objectives shall be • • • • • •

Resisting heat gain Walls Open spaces and built form Fenestration Use of ecofriendly materials Showcase Green biodiversity different bioclimatic regions

from

Energy conservation in Metro transport Energy saving and efficiency in Metrorail systems is nowadays a key topic in order to reduce consumption and costs since it has become a global concern. In particular, traffic operation has a significant impact on energy consumption in metro lines and thus it is important to analyze strategies to minimize it.

Metro Rail System serious concern of saving energy during operational phase by adopting the technology as under: Platform Screen Door (PSD) As it prevents people from falling or jumping on the tracks, allowing trains to enter the stations at higher speed, reducing draught and air pressure caused by trains, letting platforms be quieter and cleaner and prevents people from throwing trash on the tracks and thus preventing track fires. Above all, this technique allowing the stations to be airconditioned at lower cost.

maintenance costs of the mechanical brakes. Any Metro shall prove that the use of regenerative braking cuts back on energy use of the trains by about 30 % which contributes the reduction in emission of CO2 which lead to climate change mitigation.

Automatic Train Operation System (ATO) To up frequency, in near future, the operation may be driver less once the stabilized operations is completed by Pilot, then, operation can be started running smoothly through communication based central control computers. As this will be a preprogrammed set of optimized speed profiles by reducing notch changes to minimize energy consumption as it minimizes the energy demands.

According to a result of simulation about 30 % energy consumption can be reduced.

Mechanisms for Energy- Saving for Rolling Stock • Train Control Monitoring Systems (TCMS): Essential Technology to realize Rolling Stock Energy Management Systems.

• TCMS monitors operational states of all the equipment and control each equipment to reduce energy consumption and peak energy.

• The TCMS can control electrical equipment finely and speedily through amplified 100 Mbps Ethernet. The Ethernet transmission customized for train reduces size, weight and number of cables.

• All the trains are controlled by a duplex main line transmission and the system is secured with robust configuration • A main line network can be established via existing cables to achieve tower cost and brief installation period.

Auxiliary Power Supply (APS) System

Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PSMS) Propulsion system including Traction Inverter may save considerable energy through this technique Use of energy-efficient system namely

propulsion

• Use of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor • Higher DC Link Voltage • Use of efficient cooling system of power handling devices.

Balance between maximum speed, coasting, running time for minimum energy usage, minimum speed up to which regeneration technically is possible Utility Power factor Modern metro coaches are provided with air conditioning and consumes a considerable amount of energy. Energy efficient roof mounted packaged unit, cleaning of filters and their timely replacement, Air sealing of coach etc. are some of the measures will be adopted Energy Conservation measures in NonTraction As for 50 % of the energy is consumed towards non-traction mainly towards environmental control, tunnel ventilation system, illumination, lifts, escalators and pumps.

Basically, the scope of energy conservation technological advancement taking place in the field of following Motors Motors are used for large many applications such as chiller, pump, fan, etc. These motors are generally for 16 hrs. duty a day and thus deciding for use of energy- efficient motor makes sense.

Regenerative Braking System (RBS) The introduction of regenerative braking in Metrorail will have no direct effect on the local air quality. Lowering the electricity demand will lower the emission of air pollutants like NOx, SO2 and particulate matter. Cost benefits from the use of regenerative braking system from reduced energy costs and lower

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• Energy saving achieved by enhanced efficiency.

• A typical efficiency of motor alternators may be 80 %, but it can be achieved a higher efficiency than that of motor generators which three level inverters which reduces the loss.

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

Variable Voltage Variable Frequency (VVVF) control of motor when the speed is required to be regulated or load varies so that in any condition the equipment works at its optimum energy efficiency.

Use of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor for lifts consumes less power as compared to normal induction motor.

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KNOWLEDGE SERIES  Option of regenerative braking Lifts during travel with gravity.

Economic use of renewable source of energy

Use of brushless DC motor provides energy efficiency. This is but obvious that permanent magnets are used to produce rotor flux which otherwise is by electric current thus saving on IR losses, size, weight of rotor etc. With the control of pulse frequency, the speed of the motor can be controlled to the desired load conditions giving it an edge in part load efficiency. BLDC motor suitability is limited in the lower size band only.

Many options of using renewable sources of energy such as solar lighting, LED lighting, etc. and prioritization be done based on most economic options.

Technological advancement will open new fronts of economic options.

Air conditioning / Environmental Control Systems / TVS Air conditioning is the single largest consumer of power in any set-up. For e.g., if any UG station provided air conditioning unit of 1000TR capacity, then, the estimated energy consumption for 16 hours working / year / station is 4000000 unit (i.e.) approximately 2.4 Crores / year Such a high consumption open challenges for the designer to look for energy saving options. These are use of higher Coefficient of Performance (COP) air conditioning system.

Metro transport system consumes a considerable amount of energy to traction as well as non-traction. Saving energy means saving on cost and reduced CO2 emissions. Saving one kW power for 16 hours a day means saving of Rs.35000 (present day electrical energy cost in India, and in some countries more than this) and 0.5 ton of CO2 into atmosphere per year. This thumb rule is quite motivating for young electrical engineers towards energy conservation.

High level of consumption in traction is due to frequent stand and stop along with air conditioning of the coach. Non traction energy consumption is also considerably high due to air-conditioned underground platform, provision of lift and escalator, ready to use firefighting measures etc.

High Efficiency Filters • Insulation of chilled water pipes / air ducts • Avoiding oversized equipment.

Efficiency of oversized equipment is lower • Control of fresh air intake particularly for equipment room Fans Energy efficiency of fans falls in a very low band of 50-60 % and lot of energy is wasted in kinematic and pressure head. It is important to study the technological development for improving energy efficiency and incorporation in the design specification Energy efficiency of fan depends on the efficiency of motor, VFD, belt drive, aerodynamic design, fan wheel (backward blades has the highest energy efficiency) bearing etc. While designing a system, it is not only the volume and pressure important but also specifying the energy efficiency at full and part load.

In total, Railway Transportation should be…

Operate and improve the business in a way that minimizes the negative impacts and maximizes the benefits of the railway to the environment.

Carbon smart Achieve long-term reductions in carbon emissions through improved energy efficiency, new power sources and modal shift.

Energy wise Maximize rail’s energy efficiency for traction and non-traction use.

Supporting the economy Boost the productivity and competitiveness of a country at a national and regional level, through efficient services and by facilitating agglomeration and catalyzing economic regeneration.

Optimizing the railway Maximize rail’s capability, build on its strengths and improve efficiency to deliver a transport system that is resilient and offers good value for money.

Being transparent Promote a culture of open and accountable decision making and measure, monitor and report publicly on our progress toward sustainability. ***

Customer driven Putting customers at the heart of the railway and reducing the industry's environmental impact – operate and improve the business in a way that minimises the negative impacts and maximizes the benefits of the railway to the environment.

Putting rail in reach of people Position rail as an inclusive, affordable and accessible transport system through the provision of information and accessible facilities.

Providing an end to end journey Work together with all transport modes to provide an integrated, accessible transport system.

Being an employer of choice Respect, encourage and develop a diverse workforce, support its wellbeing and actively consider and address the challenges of the future labour market.

Reducing our environmental impact

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MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

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OPINION 

Mobility as a Service: Speedy & forceive steps required for “MaaS” implementation in public transport for India’s development

Dr. Amudhan Valavan Public Transport Expert

A

ll the nations are competing towards achieving the “Developed Nation” status.

And for achieving that revolution and innovation in every field is one of the contributing factors.

Consider an average person who goes to work. There are people who have their homes and offices in the same compound and some are lucky to reach their offices within minutes and even lucky if they reach there without changing their mode.

The figure-A explains best the efficient way one of my friends reaches his office every day. This calls for an innovation which the developed countries have adopted long back, cutting costs and inconveniences in everyday transportation. It's time India starts to take the path before it's too late.

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Then there is Mobility as a Service (MaaS). The adoption of MaaS will revolutionise transportation and could transform the commuter experience.

MaaS should be characterised as a better, faster, more interconnected and holistic personal transportation process that can benefit cities, communities and transit agencies.

Despite many outside of the transport sector never having heard of the term, the concept is being discussed in government chambers, City Halls and planning authorities. The challenge is that they all define MaaS differently. However, two crucial elements are often left out of the definitions. These are the role of the wider public transit sector and the role of local and central government bodies in delivering MaaS to their communities.

The Challenges faced by Maas is better illustrated in figure- B. With public transport usage expected to boom, our future gating systems will complement the existing infrastructure at travel destinations by using these

technologies to improve passenger through-put, thus reducing station overcrowding and creating a more pleasant travelling experience.

But in large Metro cities the complexities increase. And multi modal transport is what more than half of the working class rely on. We are well known about the concept “Multimodal Transport as a Service” and are defined by world class experts as: “MaaS” as a combination of public and private transportation services within a given regional environment that provides optimal, holistic and people-centred travel options”.

A unified payment solution, a smart card system, providing a better payment solution be it a taxi ride, or an auto rickshaw, the metro or the jet plane, or you want to speed through a toll without confusion in transaction this is a one stop solution. It eliminates the complexities of multiple types of payment systems. The card shall contain personal details of

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 OPINION

Figure - A

individual as well as be linked with the bank that makes it seamless to recharge and use it in stations and in food courts as well as in parking lots.

This is a one-time investment towards digitization in India which would bring revolution in payment system. With connected cloud technologies and a single payment system that can monitor people movements on the go, the data obtained can be used by planners to make more efficient transport system.

Every individual can travel worry free/ cash free with the safety and reliability of digital money and loan abilities in times of need that was not foreseen.

It’s just not a smart payment system,

Figure - B

with proper data obtained on the initial run and processing, government can deploy vehicles depending on the greater need at any particular time, thereby reducing costs and pollution. One can understand the convenient future Business Process of implementing the system with the figure-C.

implementation would not even require fraction of cost that goes into electrification of transportation.

Many countries like Japan, Hong Kong, London, USA, Singapore with names as PASMO, OCTOPUS, OYSTER and CLIPPER cards respectively which offer a lot of convenience to both the people and These are times when governments the government. around the globe are moving towards Renewable energy system. India has By carefully studying other countries, moved its coin to implement EV vehicles Indian Government introduced National at a full swing backed by huge Transport Card also called as National investments. The benefits of Electric Common Mobility Card (NCMC). But this Vehicles are beyond measure and so is the scheme somehow did not manage to reach unification of Payment system through a the expected response from people and is at smart payment card in already existing a disadvantage when it comes to complex transport environment. And this compatibility with other card operation systems and payment methods. The Ru-Pay card introduced by the government has its own system and payment technology compared to the already available Visa and Master Card. This has caused a setback to successful implementation of the system.

The Government has to take proper steps to integrate and bring all the influencing body into one umbrella with aim to ease the payment systems present in the already existing multi modal transport system.

When organizations come together to consolidate many of these roles over time, the Multi modal transport system with a unified payment method will be of great success. Manufacturers of hardware, transport providers, software providers, infrastructure managers and ultimately the riders should all collaborate in order to give birth to a system that is reliable, smooth and has an easy learning curve for people from all walks of life.

Figure - C

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Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

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OPINION 

Figure - D

quickly accessible. So a proper planning commission has to design stations and stops in such a way that people find it easy to change transport mode conveniently to reach their destination as quick as possible.

When something is made easier than what exists now and when it also comes with a bonus of lower cost to reach the destination, the crowd will naturally move towards that brilliant innovation.

Having an idea such as Maas with all the wonders it can offer to the people and to the very nature of transportation as you can see in figure-E, India shall reach great heights in establishing an efficient transport system thereby reaping many benefits. *** Figure – E

Multi modal transports has a lot of seen in the illustration Figure-D, but benefits when it comes to climate change, multi modal transport is best opted and congestion prevention, and a lot more as utilized only by people when they are WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

___________________________________ Author is active Member of Editorial Advisory Board of Urban Transport News. Views are personal.

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

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INTERVIEW 

Labour shortages might lead to alternative strategies by companies to increase productivity through mechanisation, automation and digitalisation of projects. ~ Vimal Kejriwal, MD & CEO KEC International Limited

Although KEC International Limited, which executes projects in electricity transmission & distribution (T&D), railways, civil, solar, smart infra and cables, did not encounter issues related to payments or renegotiation of contracts during the lockdown, the company has seen delays in orders from its clients. Vimal Kejriwal, Managing Director & CEO of KEC International Limited, told Vikas Srivastava in an exclusive interview that that labour shortages might lead to alternative strategies by companies to increase productivity through mechanisation, automation and digitalisation of projects.

How do you see the removal of restrictions on projects in the T&D and construction sector to help companies such as KEC? Things are slowly getting back into action after the restrictions were removed on April 20. We believe it will take at least another four-five days to get back to normal since we require the incidental suppliers for the work to continue in full swing.

Our projects require cement, steel and other materials for which we need to line up the logistics as well. We normally have stocks which are good enough for a WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

week, but if the supply chain does not get cleared then one starts to feel the stockouts. The same things can happen in factories as well, if they do not allow the vendors to open their shops. However, projects are slowly getting into shape.

Since you are present in various segments like T&D, railway electrification, cabling and civil work for industries, which projects according to you are getting into shape?

The T&D projects have started at various places. Railway electrification work has also started in Maharashtra between yesterday and today. Civil projects like construction of cement factories and other industrials have got approvals. We are doing four metro projects; the one in Kochi has got approval for starting the construction activity but the three projects in Delhi are stuck due to complete lockdown. In Maharashtra we have got approval for railway electrification now. But unfortunately, we could not work during the lockdown on electrification, which we had requested.

since only six days’ work was lost.

However, going ahead we will require an extra effort to make up for the lost time of over 45 days. We will take at least two weeks to ramp up. So some of the lost time can be recovered, but if the lockdown persist beyond the month of May then the recovery could be difficult.

The recovery for us will depend on two things — how much of logistics and raw material is available for ramp-up, and how many migratory workers we can retain.

How many workers do you have at present and will it help to ramp up your projects?

We had around 30,000 workers spread over 150 project sites before the lockdown. At present we are left with 20,000 workers, while 30% have left for their hometowns. These workers are staying at makeshift quarters at the project sites, where their food, shelter and medical requirememts are taken care of.

So we have the advantage of starting the projects and ramping up quickly, if the workers continue to remain with us.

What has been the impact on completion of projects in FY20 due to lockdown?

How do you see the increase in transport cost to impact your overall operations?

There was not much impact on project completion due to lockdown in FY20,

Overall the cost curve has gone down if we look at the cost of materials, such as

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 INTERVIEW aluminium, copper, steel or oil. This drop in cost will help us to offset whatever little increase in cost we have seen in transport or otherwise, unless there is a prolonged shutdown.

Do you see a major chunk of your revenue coming from international operations in Q1FY21 since most of your factories and projects were open abroad?

We expect the international revenues to go up in Q1FY21 to at least 50% from 45% earlier as most of our projects are operational in more than 35 countries that we operate in. But the way domestic operations are coming up, the impact will only be for one month, that is April.

What is your outlook on overall improvement in coming quarters? Have you encountered payment related issues or order delays from your clients?

Commencement of Piling Works on Delhi-Meerut RRTS project (Photo: NCRTC)

We have an order book of Rs 20,000 crore as of March 31, while Rs 3,000 crore is as L1. So for us it is a question of revenue deferment rather than revenue loss. For us the revenue will come if not in this quarter then next quarter. By God’s grace we have not had any issues related to payments or renegotiation of contracts. But we have seen delay in orders from our clients.

Going ahead we foresee a dramatic change in our project executions as a lot of shift is seen in terms of mechanisations, automation and digitalisation of projects due to social distancing and labour shortages.

Can you explain in detail about change in project execution?

With government mandating only 25% to 50% employee attendance due to social distancing, companies will have to find alternative ways of increasing productivity.

One way of doing it will be to mechanise, automate and digitalise the projects. It may take at least five-six months to automate the factories, since it will require redesigning the factories or relocating them, but mechanisation, such as getting an excavator or a loader can be done immediately.

Digitalisation will have to be done at different levels to overcome the issues of social distancing. However it should be understood that the intent is to maintain social distancing and not reduce labour count.

employees to work from home, which until now was unimaginable. We believe 1520% of our office workforce can be shifted back to home. Although it may not be possible for people deployed at project sites where physical presence is must. But if mechanisation is introduced at project sites, then these people can be re-deployed to other projects. *** Curtsey: FE Online

What according to you has been the biggest shift in the way companies have been operating since the lockdown?

According to me a bigger paradigm shift due to lockdown has been the ability of

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OPINION 

10

before we can eventually have electric buses in the mainstream.

transportation trends to watch for in 2020 communicate with each other in realtime. IoT will also make it easier for vehicles to identify pedestrians and cyclists, preventing potential accidents.

Luke Grainger Technology Thinker

A

lot has been happening in the global transport sector over the last decade. In 2019 alone, we saw several cities in Europe ban diesel cars and adopt electric transit buses. Technology-enabled mobility grew tremendously well in the past year and the passenger transportation scene evolved in a big way. Transport experts, city planners, and technology futurists are all curious to see what happens in 2020 and beyond.

That is why we have compiled a 10-point prediction of the trends that might define transportation in 2020.

1. Scooters will not be “cool” anymore Scooters were the coolest kid in the transportation sector until last year when they were officially adopted into the mainstream. They are fast transitioning from the controversial transportation tool that used to turn heads and draw admiration and hate in equal measure, to a convenient transportation tool that anyone can ride. People will be riding them to work, tourists will be using them for sightseeing, and pedestrians will not be too concerned about the now uncontroversial vehicles.

2. Continued adoption of IoT Web-enabled smart devices are taking over the world, and the transport sector won’t be spared. 2020 will be the year when data sensors, processors, and transmitters will join the mainstream.

The Internet of Things (IoT) eco-system will necessitate that all cars and trucks be fitted with sensors and communication hardware that will enable them to WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

3. Growth of MaaS Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) will grow exponentially in 2020 and beyond. This technology will make the most of Transportation Systems Management and Operations (TSMO) in optimizing traffic management in cities.

4. The continued growth of autonomous driving Autonomous cars are becoming a reality now after having been dismissed by many transport stakeholders as a pipe dream about a decade ago. In 2020, we can expect autonomous technology and selfdriving cars to continue gaining ground in the transport industries. More car manufacturers and tech companies will keep manufacturing more functional, secure, and sophisticated autonomous cars. This technology will be claiming its place as the future of mobility within the next decade.

5. More adoption of battery-powered transportation Battery-powered transportation is becoming a mainstream thing now. We are already seeing an upsurge in the adoption of the electric bike in the US and Europe. These bikes are making it effortless to bike and exercise, and that means they will continue finding favor in the eyes of many working citizens. City planners will also be trying to leverage these bikes because they can be a great alternative to cars. They will significantly reduce traffic congestion in our cities.

6. We could start seeing e-school buses The “vehicle-to-grid” concept (V2G) will be integrated into school transportation in the form of e-school buses. School buses, in the literal sense, are used less than a third of the time regular public transport buses are used. Because of that significantly low mileage, it is easier to test mobile batteries on school buses

7. Use of AI in transportation Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be complementing IoT in making our roads safer and lesser congested. On top of increase passenger safety, this technology will help minimize carbon emission on our roads and at the same time make transportation affordable and profitable.

8. Mobility on Demand (MoD) will be “high in demand” Mobility will be redefined in 2020 and beyond. Instead of having to endure the heavy burden of car ownership (maintenance costs, fuel cost fluctuations, and hefty insurance covers), people will be opting for Mobility on Demand (MoD). This is where you order for a car through a mobile app whenever you need a ride as opposed to owning a car that you use less than a quarter of your day.

9. ... and shared mobility as well Shared or smart mobility will also be high in demand. Cities will have to rethink their transportation preferences in this smart era. One prediction that is likely to pass in this regard is that cities will try to improve shared mobility by combining multiple modes of transport, say, bikes, PSVs, and private cars, in order to come up with a more integrated system.

10. Continued integration of clean transportation technology Transportation companies will keep trying to cut down on emissions by reducing oil usage. That will be achieved through the adoption of transportation tools such as self-driving drones.

The global transportation sector is going through many changes in 2020 and the last decade, all with the aim of making passenger and cargo transportation cheaper, safer, and more efficient. The 10 trends predicted in this article will shape the transportation environment going forward. Of course, there will be many more potential changes, some of which are not yet predictable. ***

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OPINION ď ˇď ľ

Effects of COVID-19 on Transportation Demand Even though the fall in passenger transport demand is pushed by social distancing restrictions, COVID-19 may have a long-term effect on people's travel behaviour.

Aravind Harikumar Research Associate The Energy and Resource Institute

T

ransportation sector has been one of the primary victims of COVID - 19. From rickshaw pullers to airlines, all have been affected economically by the pandemic.

India's overall energy demand fell by 11% in March 2020. Due to lockdown in many countries, the demand for passenger transport has been adversely hit. The freight segment has had a mixed short-term effect in terms of transportation demand. There is a surge in demand for truck drivers in transportation of essential goods. For instance, there is 40% to 60% increase of product being moved into grocery stores and warehouses in US since COVID spread started. However, the supply chain disruption and slowdown caused

by COVID is expected to pull down freight demand in the medium-term.

Urban freight segments in India have also had a mixed short-term effect in terms of transportation demand. Since February, the online food orders have dropped by 20% whereas online grocery orders are overflowing. It is to yet to be seen whether these acquired habits of online grocery shopping will sustain after the pandemic passes.

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Citing higher risk of community spread of the virus in buses, many city/state/national governments issued guidelines for public transport operators.

These included various instructions from dispensing tickets to disinfecting seats.

With increasing restrictions imposed by governments, both public transport services and their demand have been badly hit. Moovit released a report showing the drastic fall in public transport usage in many cities.

Even after the situation normalises, the perception of risk associated with crowded areas could lead to shift in preferences towards personal travel modes. That is, people may avoid using public transport modes to avoid crowds.

People may also avoid shared mobility modes like autorickshaws, micro-transit vans, e-rickshaws etc. The drivers employed in app-based taxi services are economically suffering in the short term due to the COVID lockdown. However, it cannot be said if these modes may face long term economic effects in terms of reduced travel demand.

Many players in the transportation sector are adapting to these changing demands.

For instance, American Airlines and some of its peers have converted many of the passenger flights to carry goods.

These idle airplanes have been assigned to carry e-commerce, medical supplies and office cargo. In China, autonomous vehicles were piloted to provide 'touchless' service to provide delivery

issues while reducing the risk of spread of the disease. Indian Railways have simultaneously cancelled passenger trains and ramped up parcel services and other freight services for essential commodities.

In Bengaluru, Three Wheels United (TWU), a city-based social enterprise, launched a program for auto drivers to deliver medicines, groceries and other essential goods to the residents.

Unfortunately, this program hit a roadblock regarding permissions from the authorities to operate during the 21-day lockdown in India.

During the lockdown, only essential people and commodities are permitted by the authorities. The list of essential people and commodities must be continuously revised to minimise the adverse impact on people's lives and the spread of the pandemic. Considering this lockdown as a large travel demand experiment, organisations have much to gain from optimising transportation of employees in the future, in terms of productivity and costs. Also, during this period, due to no transport modes, people have been exposed to walking in roads with neither pollution nor congestion.

Hence, authorities may expect better results in future policies aimed at nudging short trips into pedestrianised modes.

However, as the transportation sector employs millions, in the long run, it is necessary to understand the pandemic's impact on consumer preference and the subsequent transportation demand for passengers and goods. *** Views are personal. This article first published atTERI’s blog at www.teriin.org

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 OPINION

COVID-19 shows we need a broader definition of safe mobility

S

afety is an intrinsic, essential part of any successful mobility service, but COVID - 19 has forced us to re-assess what safety means. The crisis has revealed three core areas where mobility can be strengthened. Addressing these issues will mean expanding the notion of safe mobility for everyone going forward.

Protecting drivers With fewer people driving every day as a result of physical distancing measures, one might expect fewer road accidents.

Unfortunately, as a byproduct of a 40% decline in traffic, there has been a drastic increase in speeding, with law enforcement agencies across the US and Europe all noting increases in drivers flouting the law, while some police forces admit that they are relaxing enforcement of speeding altogether to reallocate their efforts elsewhere.

54

Michelle Avary Head- Automotive and Autonomous Mobility World Economic Forum

Normally, reductions in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) would correspond to a reduction in the number of car crashes, but it seems that the increase in speeding is creating some worrying spikes in fatal accidents and accidents involving vulnerable road users, and road fatality rates are not falling in line with the with reductions in VMT. Prior to shelter in place orders, road crashes were already causing more than 1.3 million deaths and 50 million injuries every year, according to the FIA. When fatalities occur in other types of travel such as rail, aviation or shipping, it is an

Urban Transport Infrastructure // MAY 2020

Tim Dawkins Lead- Automotive and Autonomous Mobility World Economic Forum

exceptional event, a tragedy.

Unfortunately, with road fatalities, thousands of deaths every day are an accepted norm.

This doesn’t need to be the case. If we push forward and faster with driver assistance technologies and highly automated driving systems, and demonstrate they are safer in numerous ways than the current status quo, we are not only reassessing what safety means, we are delivering safer mobility.

Additionally, safe roads should not only concern reduced vehicular fatalities.

Safety should encompass the vehicle’s WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

OPINION  environmental impact and creating safe use of shared public space.

Retaining users The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is showing us that our current mobility services – whether ride-hailing, rental bikes or mass transit – fail rapidly during a public health crisis out of sheer unpreparedness for such a shock to the system. It is entirely conceivable that post-COVID, we will see consumer attitudes swing back toward private cars and away from more sustainable shared mobility solutions. Retaining the use of shared mobility is essential, not just because it reduces the number of cars on the road, thereby avoiding accidents, but for many, public transport is the only option for their commute. Ridership and revenue must recover in order to keep the system running.

In order to prevent this regression, we need to expand the definition of safe mobility to encompass the safety of the occupants and protect the health of the greater public. Ideally, this should address concerns stemming from the pandemic, such as ensuring the biosafety of passengers, and establishing crosssector agreement on maintaining the cleanliness of the vehicles, in addition to the current safety focus on engineering and reliability.

Deploying automated vehicles COVID-19 should serve as a call-toaction for automated driving systems. We need to consider moving faster to deploy automated systems to solve specific problems. For example, can automated delivery vehicles be deployed to areas under lock down to deliver critical supplies, thereby limiting exposure to drivers and residents alike? Can AVs be deployed to ferry biohazardous goods like test samples, thereby limiting exposure to drivers? Can highly automated driving systems augment transit services, thereby keeping key bus lines operational and available for essential workers for longer hours and reducing exposure to transit drivers?

There are strategic tensions inherent in these considerations. If we look to deploy highly automated driving systems to replace bus drivers, are you doing so to WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM

Photo: Ahmedabad Mirror

protect drivers’ biosafety or are we shrinking employment opportunities?

Both can be true, but one can be a challenging sell at a time when millions are losing their jobs. Right now, there is a need to keep public transit functioning in order for essential workers to get to work.

This does not mean that bus drivers should be put in harm’s way unnecessarily.

Moreover, as AV operators look ahead and study how to resume AV development operations, we should consider where and how to deploy these vehicles to ensure the benefits of these solutions are maximized in the interests of society, without compromising the biosecurity of everyone.

Seeking answers In order to develop actionable solutions, we need to address the unanswered questions and consider the needs of industry, policymakers and users alike.

For example, will we need to continue physical distancing measures on transit for years to come? If so, how can we do this and still ensure financial viability of different modes?

need to uphold specific codes and if so, how do we enforce code compliance?

Can we apply technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to help solve some of these problems, increase the quality of services, while reducing costs? Lastly, what role should governments play in partnering with private companies to fund solutions?

These questions are just a starting point, but they illustrate the growing need for cross-sector collaboration to address how we advance safe, resilient mobility services which suitably protect public health. The COVID-19 pandemic has already shaken the foundations of the fledgling new mobility ecosystem, if we want to ensure our progress to date is not lost, a new approach to safety is essential. *** Views are personal. This article first published at World Economic Forum’s blog.

Additionally, will cleaning standards MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

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 EVENT CALENDER

EVENT CALENDER 2020 Dates

Event Name

Venue

May 18-20

Smart Rail 2020

Rome, Italy

June 1-2

Transit 2020

Mumbai, India

July 1-2

Asia Pacific Rail 2020

Bangkok, Thailand

July 10

Rail Infra and Mobility Business Digital Awards 2020

New Delhi, India

August 26-28

Railwaytech Indonesia

Jakarta, Indonesia

September 8-9

Arab Transport Development & Integration Conference

Dubai, UAE

October 6-8

GeoSmart India 2020

Hyderabad, India

October 20-22

Transport India 2020 Expo

New Delhi, India

Oct. 30 – Nov. 01

Urban Mobility India Conference & Expo 2020

New Delhi, India

November 25-26

Rail Asia Expo 2020

Bangkok, Thailand

Nov 30-Dec 02

Rail Live 2020

Madrid, Spain

!! Special Announcement !!

In view of spread of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in India and to ensure safety of Industry leaders and delegates, we have decided to postpone our most awaited event “Rail Infra and Mobility Business Summit & Awards 2020 (RIMBSA 2020)” to next year 2021. Now the event will be take place on 9th September 2021 in New Delhi, India.

Thanking you for your co-operation.

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LEADERS FEEDBACK 

What do leaders say about Urban Transport News publications?

An online portal and magazine dedicated to the transport system is an excellent idea. In a country that's progressing at frantic speed, infrastructure and transport are what enable people to keep pace with the progress. The portal focuses on all the important aspects and the latest trends and news about transport. I must congratulate the team for providing this platform.

R.A. Rajeev IAS & Metropolitan Commissioner Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) (In response an interview question)

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“

It’s a welcome step to provide specialized news through magazines and online portals. It helps authorized bodies to convey messages and communicate with stakeholders and the common man. It also helps management to know the opinion and suggestions of common people which ultimately helps us upgrade and revisit our plan and system. At the same time, people become aware of the development in their cities with all the details. These platforms help establish real-time communication in this age of information.

Kumar Keshav Managing Director Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation (In response an interview question)

MAY 2020 // Urban Transport Infrastructure

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URBAN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE

EDITORIAL CALENDER 2020-21 ISSUE

PUB. DATE

FEATURED TOPICS

Special Coverage

MAY

10th May 2020

COVID-19 and its effects on Rail and Transport Industry

Mobility as a Service (MaaS), Magrail Technology

JUL

10th Jul. 2020

Autonomous and Driverless Vehicles

Technology used in Autonomous Vehicle, Future of Mobility, Smart Mobility, Urban Air Mobility, Rail Infra & Mobility Business Digital Awards 2020

SEP

10th Sep. 2020

Climate Change and Green Mobility

Green Metro, Hydrogen Train, Electric Vehicles & Charging Infrastructure, Rail Infra & Mobility Business Digital Awards 2020

NOV

10th Nov. 2020

Multi Model Transport and Last Mile Connectivity

Role of Support Industry, Transport Infrastructure, Shared Mobility, Motorised & Non-Motorised Vehicles

JAN

10th Jan. 2021

Year Review 2020

Year-End 2020 Special: Urban Rail Network, Indian & Global Rail & Mobility Projects Review

MAR

10th Mar. 2021

Union Budget 2021-22

Budget Analysis, Impact of Budget on Rail, Metro & Urban Mobility

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Industry Wise Circulation  Govt./PSU/Ministries…….. 10%  EPC Industry…................. 35%  Operators………………… 10%  Suppliers/OEMs………….. 25%  Professionals……………… 15%  Research/Academic……….. 5%

Complementary: 1350 Complementary: 67300

Role/Position Wise Circulation  MD/CEO/Directors…..…... 15%  Sales & Marketing Heads... 25%  Secretaries/Administration.. 10%  Procurement In-charge…… 17%  Engineers/Project Managers 23%  Planners/Researchers……... 10%

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RNI Ref. No. DL/1339452/2018

ISSN 2581-8023

Edited and published digitally by Mrs. Mamta Shah, Managing Editor of Urban Transport News from F-35, First Floor, Pankaj Grand Plaza, Mayur Vihar Phase III, New Delhi-110091, India.

© Urban Transport News, New Delhi

E-mail: editor@urbantransportnews.com