Blinded by long term goals

Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Narayan Gopalan

Airport Connectivity Part II

Sometimes our urge to find long term solutions, seems to neglect solutions that staring at us with incredulity. The solution is not to create a long term solution but to craft a short term solution that can be extended to become a long term one.

For instance the Bangalore Airport Rail Link – this S.P.V (Special Purpose Vehicle) aims to build an elevated high speed rail link taking travellers to the airport in just 15 minutes from the city centre. Sounds phenomenal, would be ideal and what more can one want! But this SPV is spending almost one and half the times the cost of the airport, and taking twice the time it took the build the airport. This 3500 crore 3 year project (on paper) has not even begun! In fact we can’t even find the money. We got 300 crores from BIAL – and another paltry 30 from the centre – we still got 3260 to go!

If I took a train today from Bangalore station I could travel to up to 4 kilometres shy of the airport. Why did we ignore the existing track that leads us to the station of Chikkajalla barely a kilometre from the trumpet interchange? All we had to lay was a 4kilometer track and maybe spruce up cantonment station to go with the looks of BIAL – and on this corridor maybe run a few spare coaches of the golden chariot! It might not be high speed – but it would save you a good 45 minutes over road! And this can even be done government style – in a last minute saving grace moment! Even the Chennai Shatabdi could make a call at the airport on its way! By all means build your 3500 crore railway, but why ignore this short term option?
Yes it is a remarkable feat; we will build 7 underpasses in just over a month. And, yes, the ride will be signal free. Bangalore has developed this style of coming up with just one extravagant solution and channelling the entire audience through it till it bursts. Is just one solution enough to cater to a 11.5 million passenger capacity airport?

Why did we not consider and develop alternative routes. Why didn’t we make the entire journey from Silk Board Junction to the Airport non-stop via the Ring Road? How about widening roads that approach the ring road through the city? There lies a road that connects Hoskote to Devannahalli – why not widen and diverge the Truck Traffic to and from Hyderabad onto that? The easier solution seems to be making one road sparkle and turn a blind eye in other directions.

There lies one solution – but it involves us and not the government for a change! We can make this journey hassle free if we all just smiled! Yes the journey is arduous, and the sun will bloom down upon us. But, If we all pledged not to swear, drove in our respective lanes and maybe just smiled at every face that we meet - wouldn’t it be the most peaceful journey ever made? This could be India’s most friendly road! And what a great impression we can leave on anyone departing or arriving?

I pledge, for the period of the journey from home to the airport, I will not swear at other erring drivers, I will waive to the exhausted policemen, thank the volunteering traffic warden and maybe crack a joke to those willing to hear at the frozen traffic jams!

Let us again vent our frustration in the right direction at the right moment and not at our fellow citizen. Good things comes to those who wait, hence we shall – but not quietly!