Improve Air Travel, Bullet Train Not The Solution The Modi government has announced that they are planning to have High speed Bullet Trains in India, beginning with the Mumbai - Ahmedabad route. This seems a good initiative but a little bit of looking at the rationale, convinces me that this is not the right way going forward. Simply because for one we should not follow anyone (China, Japan etc.) blindly, because what is good for the Goose may not be good for the Gander. It is not pessimism but all good intentions should be well researched and made sure that it is in the interest of the common man. This is because the pricing has been mentioned that it will be approximately 1.5 times of the 1st AC train fares, which to my mind is quite exorbitant and only a miniscule section of the population will be able to use it. The fares of 1st AC for 1000 kms is approximately Rs.3300/-, that means the fares for the bullet train will be in the Rs.5000/- range (1000 kms), which is not at all affordable to most sections of the commuters moreover budget or low cost airlines are already offering fares in the range of Rs.3000/- and are having a occupancy rate of about 75-80%, so why would people prefer Bullet Trains a more expensive and slower means of transport then airlines. Further the cost of building Infrastructure from Mumbai to Ahmedabad a distance of only 500kms is about 60000 to 70000 crores for just one sector only. The important question that needs to be asked is whether such huge amount is justified, especially when there is a cloud as to who is going to use the Bullet train at such rates. That means if you have to get a decent Bullet train coverage of the country on the lines of the golden quadrilateral route (5846 kms long) then a budget of approximately 6 to 7 lakh crores would be required. Let us see if there is a better option for commuting faster for a larger section of the citizens rather than a small minority and spending colossal amounts of financial & land resources for the Bullet train. The cost of the full fledged Navi Mumbai International airport with a capacity of 40 Million is about 14000 crores. The cost for a low cost airport in most places in India, situated about 50-75kms from the existing airport should not average more than 5000 crores per airport. If you build about 12 to 14 Low cost airports, which can cover a large part of the length and breadth of our country, it will cost about 60 - 70000 crores ie. roughly the same cost for the Mumbai - Ahmedabad bullet train infrastructure catering to only one sector & 500 kms of distance. The government instead of blowing such huge amounts on one single sector of bullet trains, should use this resource to firstly either remove the high taxes on ATF (air turbine fuel) or at least reduce it drastically, allow more FDI in select sectors like airlines to infuse sufficient capital and latest technology to run the airline more efficiently. They should stop thinking of air travel as luxury and take it as a priority to make it as high speed mass transport for a large section of the commuters. This will spur the economy and also develop the satellite cities as envisioned by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi around each such airports. This is not only preferred over bullet train because it is faster, cheaper, lower gestation period, lower capital, covers most parts of the country, instead of just one. Will improve tourism because of connectivity, will decongest existing cities to some extent because of economic activities due to the airport as well as industrialization and real estate activities. This will also help in growing the country in a more holistic manner rather than copying other countries blindly. This plan will also save a lot of land and finance for the country because on an average about 15 - 20sq.kms is required for a full fledged international airport and a low cost may average at about 15 Sq.Kms, whereas the Mumbai - Ahmedabad Bullet train infrastructure would need land acquisition of at least about 10% of the 500 kms ie. 50kms, which is a lot more then for a airport. The above actions of having low cost airport, removing/reducing taxes on ATF, increasing occupancy ratio, increasing supply of flight seats by having more flights during non-peak hours (ie. early morning between 4 to 7 a.m. and evenings/nights between 8.00 pm.-12.00 a.m), lowering profit margins by airlines for low cost /budget airlines etc. will make it competitive and comparable with 2 tier AC rates, which in turn would help bring a lot more air commuters to use this mode of air travel which is at least 3 times more faster than the Bullet train. There are large no. of low cost Airlines operating in Middle & Far East, Europe and USA like Air Asia, Easyjet, Ryanair etc. and are highly profitable. Their flight rates are very competitive vis-a-vis trains and buses, Once this happens the government need not spend huge amounts on laying new expensive tracks (Running into thousands of Kms) and special trains which will become a white elephant called the “BULLET TRAIN”. A small part of this article appeared in the DNA Mumbai dated 20th September 2014, captioned Improve Air Travel, Bullet Train not the best solution for many in India. The link of the same is as follows epaper.dnaindia/story.aspx?id=71000&boxid=16200&ed_date=2014-09-20&ed_code=820015&ed_page=2#.VDYaksxcubY.twitter
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 05:33:04 +0000
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