All the people above please see the link:

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ahmedabad-brts-success-takes-cept-to-i...

Tanvir A Siddiqui
Posted: Mon Aug 30 2010, 05:10 hrs
Indian Express Ahmedabad:

Objective of Indore BRTS is to improve reliability of the service.

Gujarat-based urban planning school to redesign transportation model in Madhya Pradesh’s commercial hub

Riding on the success of the BRTS in Ahmedabad, the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT) has bagged a job from Indore Development Authority (IDA) to redesign and develop a similar system for that city on a pilot basis.

The plan was earlier based on the Delhi-Pune model but as it failed to deliver in those cities, authorities in Indore changed over to the Ahmedabad model. Professor H M Shivanand Swamy, Associate Director of CEPT who heads the Ahmedabad project, said the model has attracted worldwide attention for its efficacy.

“The brief is to remodel the design from side stations to the centre of the road; redesign the junctions and bus shelters besides assisting the local authority in pre-launch preparations,” Swamy said.

IIT-Delhi, which was earlier assigned the task, had gone for the Pune-Delhi model, which involved docking of buses on the left instead of the centre of the road, thereby causing inconvenience to the public at junctions along with wastage of precious road space.

The objective of the Indore BRTS redesigning is to improve the reliability of the service and remove the shortcomings of the left-side docking of buses and have right-side docking in the centre. Another objective is to improve frequency of buses, Prof Swamy said.

He added that the earlier plan involved having two bus stations on each side of the road near junctions but this would be risky for passengers. Besides, the cost of double stations would be at least 1.8 times higher than that of the centre-of-the-road docking stations, he said.

It is prudent to move from hearsay to scientifically based knowledge, and understanding of facts, especially when it comes to spreading awareness through responsible reporting.
In this regard I would suggest (for people rquiring informed explanations) to get in Touch with ICTSL and EMBARQ, for detailed performance related comparisons of these two designs, they have been provided answers in discussions, writing with PPTs for each of the comments listed by you above.
The questions one needs to ask and find rational answers to are:
Is any road space being saved at the junction or otherwise in Indore from going from staggered to island station - the answer is "NO" (compare the plans for the 2 options).
Is passenger convenience improving by going for centre island stations from curb side - The answer is again "NO".
Will Indore station redesign from Staggered to centre improve the reliability - The answer is an obvious "NO".
Will Indore station re-design from staggered to island improve the frequency of operations - answer is again "NO"
In fact there is a loss of all or most of above as average speeds and capacity drops. If anyone is claiming that this simple change in station design (to island) will give you the above benefits, it may not be based on any sound findings.
Also when one uses the word public ("inconvenience to public") one needs to be aware who that public is? In Delhi 75% of all road users are either pedestrians, cyclists, or public transport users, less than 25% use private transport - which one is public? and who amongst these have been inconvenienced in Delhi or Pune? Now comapre this with Janmarg. Majority of trips in both Delhi and Ahmedabad are walking and cycling (people walking and cycling to work), who has been more inconvenienced in - Delhi or Ahemedabad? And is this really because of design but simply that Delhi has 4 times the amount of vehicle on the same road space as Ahemedabad. How will the bus station design effect this or anything else positively.
Also let's try and answer which type of bus station design is most popular in BRTS across the world - please look up the internet nearly 70-80% of all systems use Delhi-Pune type station designs, and these include one of the best rated systems in the world (Guanghzou, China) and the oldest BRTS (Curitiba, Brazil), the one used in narrowest stretches (Quito, Equador).
Having said that I must clarify that I am not trying to stand against or in favor of any system. Janmarg has it's own positives, and so does on Pune and Delhi (compare capacities of these systems, and the people being carried currently). Best way forward is to identify the positives and negatives in each and produce an improved system. But if we stop becoming critical of any of these options, we close the doors to any improvements and innovations. To allow that, and for Indore to be better than all of these systems (which is so much possible), a rational well thought of decision making approach has to be taken. Which is what I am pointing to as missing here!!

I agree with the comments raised by Mr. Gandhi and write in, to question the procedure here.

The question I ask here is - was Indore's decision to shift from the Delhi Pune model to the Ahmedabad model an informed one? Were any rational scientific studies done before making the choiced decision? I am aware that back in Dec 2008 all experts from EMBARQ, ICTSL and IIT had debated this issue and agreed against the use of high floor island/median station design/model (Janmarg model) for the city of Indore. Why was it revoked, unilaterally and without consulting all involved? The reason implied in the article (including Prof. Swamy's comments) above is the 'success of Janmarg and failure of the Delhi Pune model'. What are the parameters of this success of the former or failure of the latter? Have any comparison studies between the two models of delhi pune - central staggered and Janmarg -Island been done. Are they well documented and all the more important "well studied"? Do they show the "success" of Janmarg attributed to island station designs? EMBARQ had evaluated the Delhi corridor earlier and the only areas which required improvement was that of enforcement and operations - not design - not staggered station (refer study available on CSE website). Although the success of the corridor also depends on its length and with 5.8 km of the BRT Delhi, the results for passenger satisfaction (as per CSE and NDTV survey) are appreciative. EMBARQs' team themselves had highlighted the same model was being used in various former and upcoming corridors outside India. Then how is the design/model, suddenly become the sole reason for the shift to median platforms.

Apart from this, one needs to consider that Indore has an open system design (unlike Janmarg and like Pune and Delhi) as proposed by Embarq - buses for most of their journey travel outside the corridor. The brand new buses here will give much worse comfort and experience to passenger who now have to board 4-5 steps in the bus as against 1-2 in the semi low floor buses operating currently in the city. How does this make the public transport in Indore "People friendly"? Or is it, that ensuring that Indore replicates Janmarg in the 10km long corridor, meant that general public transport users which are much higher in number will suffer due to the argument of "high floor level boarding". These may be lame arguments but need a thought. Consider that after the construction of high platforms, the effected routes can never be modernized to the low floor buses, even if they are cheaper, better and readily available. Is the city aware of the price it is paying to acquire a replica?

I have been reading the arguments mentioned by others and also have been aware of the decisions made in purview of such projects. Although it sounds more as a shift of patronage since no scientific reasoning has yet been provided, I speak in interest of the best way forward - so that end product is not a replica but an innovative example.

Wow, there sure is a lot of controversy here. I think this is something worth watching and I hope that you all will continue to post further findings. Hearsay may not be important to some but it is important to look at these claims further.

This one involves many questions and issues but I think it is not the right time to do some arguments about it. What we need to do is to contribute ideas for the improvement of our nation. Besides, it is for the benefit of most of us right? I am sure that none of you would want India to be left-out when it comes to transportation means. There are countries nowadays who have already introduced electric cars, so why can't we?

Yes coming up with some technologies can really help we are using old (BRT) system which is creating many problems as India is developing very fast we need something better.

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