Hyderabad to get Skybus Metro by '08

A top Malaysian company is all geared up to begin negotiations with Indian authorities for the construction of world's first ever 'Skybus Metro' in Hyderabad, after a techno-feasibility study early next month.

Feasibility studies which began last month would conclude on November 5 and negotiations for construction of Skybus are expected to begin in January next year and it could become a reality by 2008, sources in Doxport Technologies said.

The Malaysian company is working on the modalities of the 20 km Uppal-Mehdipatnam stretch in Hyderabad city along with Konkan Railways, its technology partner, they said adding that the project will be on a build-operate-transfer basis.

Unveiling a plaque of the pilot skybus project, the Malaysian company Doxport Technologies, contracted by Konkan Railway to globally promote the concept, said the skybus mode of transport was the cheapest available and would cost around 50 paise per km.

Sky Bus Metro is a modified railway system, where light weight coaches suspended over rails, travel below rail guides and are constructed using modern pre-fabricated construction technologies.

The company's chairman Abdul Azim bin Mohd Zabidi said in Hyderabad that the suspended coaches could carry up to 900 passengers every 40 seconds in each direction catering to a traffic requirement of 81,000 passengers per hour per direction.

Company Managing Director T Sivalingam said the complete ICT system for the Sky-Bus was developed by them. "This is a complete package which we can in future market to other nations."

The consortium led by Doxport helped Indian technocrat and then Konkan Railway chief B Rajaraman to realise his 'dream concept of Skybus,' and it first became operational in Goa.

Doxport Software India Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of the company, was instrumental in the conceptualisation, design, provisioning and implementation of the entire ICT control system at the pilot track in Goa, Sivalingam said.

The hardware expertise was provided by another Malaysian company Kompakar Inc, he added. Sivalingam said that the project needed lower capital costs, shorter time to be put up, noise and pollution free and requiring least urban land space.

A Sky Bus can be completed in less than two years while metro takes 5-7 years to complete, he said. "The space on top of the track called the Skyway and the space within the station create new and unique commercial space in an already congested area generating additional income."

He said a typical roll out would cost 50 per cent less than any existing metro rail system.