Skybus Metro is a modern suspended railway invented by Indian technologist Mr B Rajaram. Due to its eco-friendly, noise-free and economical operation it is has not only been seen with interest in cities in India but also by different cities in Europe and America.[1]
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Sky Bus metro falls under tramway category, under Art 366(20) of the Constitution of India. Since it operates along, and parallel to existing roadways and within municipal limits, excluded from the Indian Railway Act.
The sky bus can never capsize nor collide due to its design as well as by construction. Sky bus can be implemented at a rate of Rs 45 crore per km. This transportation system is noise-free & pollution-free with no points & crossings, which can carry about 18000 pphpd (person per hour per direction), scalable to 54000 pphpd as required. A unique mass-transit system that can be put up within two years in any crowded & congested city.
Heavy 52kg/m rails of standard gauge are placed in 8m 2m-box enclosures. These rails are supported over a 1m dia columns which are spaced at 15m distance from each other. This structure is constructed in the divider space in between lanes of a roadway. Bogies of sky bus that can run at 100 kmph, with the coach shells suspended below bogies that carry passengers in air conditioned comfort & can follow existing road routes without disturbing the existing traffic.
The fixed structure at 8m height above road level is aesthetically pleasing & they’re no concern of claustrophobic feeling for road users.Currently a test ride of sky bus has been carried out in Madgaon, Goa. Due to its eco-friendly, noise free, economic & safe operation many metros such as Ahemedabad, Banglore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pondicherry, Pune, Ranchi, Shimla, Thane etc are considering a sky bus technology to be a part of their city, even some European & American countries are interested in adopting a sky bus technology in their major cities. ' Skybus Metro is a prototype rapid transit system within the Konkan Railway in India.
The system consists of an elevated track with the cars suspended below the track, like the Wuppertal Schwebebahn or H-Bahn systems in Germany. A 1.6 kilometre (1 mile) test track in Margao, Goa started trials in 2004, but on September 25, one employee was killed and three injured in an accident.[2]
All administrations are in search of an economically viable solution to the transportation problem, which is also environmental friendly. The present conventional capital-intensive technologies are proving to be financially unviable and require heavy subsidy, which is not practical. The new technological solution, in terms of Sky Bus Metro is based on the concept of Sky Wheels presented in 1989 at World Congress for Railway research. This innovative alternative transportation solution completely eliminates any possibility of vandalism, derailments and virtually maintenancefree
The test track was supposed to be extended to 10.5 km, but no progress has been made since the accident, and neither has the system been adopted anywhere else in India.[3] However, Mr B Rajaram has defended the mode of transport, as he believes the accident was avoidable.[4]
It consist of a concrete box structure over a series of pillars of approximately 10m height &with spacing of 15m to 20m all along the road way are built in the middle of road way on pile foundation. Here two rails are fixed with appropriate fastening within the concrete box & to guide the sky bogies. It has a key feature that it has no points & crossing.
There are two standard axle bogies used for speeds of 100kmph. Bogie is driven by 3-phase ac motor with regenerative power capability. It makes use of third rail for current collection purpose. With such bogies three types of braking namely
The sky coaches are double walled light shells with wide larger windows & are suspended from sky bogies . The coaches are fully air conditioned &are provided with automatic door opening facility. It also has an additional feature of providing audiovisual information to passengers & a special 4m wide sliding doors for quick dispersal. Each pair of coaches carries 300 persons. Each bus coach is 9.25m long and 3.2 m wide and a Sky Bus unit comprises two such bus coaches, with total length of 18.5m.
The traverser is a system which automatically shifts the sky bus unit from one track to another. The traverser is nothing but a modified form of transverser which is normally used in industries for lifting & shifting the object. In the traverser a platform of track is hung to a bogie which consist of a motor & is also mounted on the track. The traverser is treated as another station & a distance of 50m from the last station to the traverser is assumed so that it provides holding capacity for two units as a third unit could be getting traversed in case of unforeseen delay.
Based on the current collection methods there are two types:-
The model that we have prepared works on the scheme of current collection by current carrying wheels.
It is a platform for the halt of the sky bus which is lifted 5.5m above ground or road run. A sky station is fully air-conditioned & is provided with the facilities such as automatic doors, lifts, elevators. It has an additional feature that one has to use a smart card for opening the door to enter into the station. The sky station requires a small area of maximum 50m long.
Currently a Konkan Railway carried out a test track of sky bus in Madgaon, Goa with the help of Goa state government. The details of test ride are as follows :-