Months after the municipal corporation of the city of Bengaluru thought of solving the traffic woes through pod taxis, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) floated tenders for the project’s implementation last week.
It will be a driverless personal rapid transport (PRT) system much like a cable car, and is proposed to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 1,700 crore.
“BBMP invites bids for Implementation of Personal Rapid Transport system for Bengaluru under Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) basis under PPP Model,” said Bengaluru Development Minister KJ George in a tweet.
The tenders were called Sunday after Indian Institute of Science (IISc) submitted the feasibility report on the project.
BBMP had, in October, requested the Directorate of Urban Land Transport(DULT) to prepare documents for the project so that the cabinet approval could be obtained.
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“BBMP will not spend a single penny for this project. The companies which take up the project will have to bear the cost. Once the tender is finalised, the DULT will submit the final report to the cabinet for its approval,” BBMP Commissioner Manjunath Prasad told TNM, reported ET.
The decision on where the project should come up is yet to be taken, although the BBMP has proposed five stretches totaling 30 km initially.
When the BBMP invited an expression of interest (EoI) in May this year, California-based sky-Tran, Minneapolis-based JPods Inc and Singapore-based Ultra Fairwood came up with their proposals. They were all forwarded to the IISc for evaluation.
However, the BBMP has not been able to build a consensus for it in the city council. If the municipal corporation manages to bring all the stakeholders on the same page and succeeds in implementing the project, traffic-weary Bengaluru could soar over bad roads.
