Monday, October 22, 2012

Rural Hubs as HIGHWAYS of FUTURE

This is what i wrote for a news item appeared in TOI during november december 2006.
RIL has to go for it. It was essential for them to become succesfull in the SEZ or their retailing project, which otherwise without rail/road and air cannot be a viable one. Now the thing left is that RIL has to make their CARGO fleet in place. If they can bring big planes offering the pax and cargo services together will be an added advantage. OR NEXT STEP they can work on MOU with the ministry of highways for making the famous quatriangle connecting metros DELHI KOLKATA CHENNAI MUMBAI (few additions like BANGALORE, KOCHI, ONE PORT in Gujrat for which RIL has already bidded)a dream come true and this is what RIL needs. The other vision is that if they can have fast transport like rapid transport system like metro trains side by side the roads that will be good option. It can be done under the PPP.

A multi storey or lateral road+rail system will be good thing. These structures can offer many services like communication (internet, tv, phones and whole lots of things) CITY gas pipelines, power lines, PETRO lines, WATER lines and many more to come in future. On Higways at few places we can have some sort of MULTIstorey transit places/structures where (as I Imagine)Helicopter or small planes or both land on upper deck the cargo or PAX come down to get on RAIL or ROAD to reach their destination. Since these quartriangle will connect all the major corners cities (as decided by the partners) [ one city in GUJRAT, Mumbai, GOA, BANGALORE, HYDERABAD, kolkatta or near kolkata, KANPUR, DELHI or GURGAON, LUDHIANA or JALLANDHAR] Reliance has already begun in this retailing business. thus they can think of it. These multistorey structure will may become small SEZs, with Storing, sorting, packaging units with sail outlets, WHEN these are SEZ whole lot of other service sector will be attached with it.
In second tier of network the states will be connected to these small SEZs. In GUJRAT or PUNJAB or BIHAR network of roads and rails or small AIR Taxis can be utilized to collect [or distribute]the produce of villages/towns within a state network having similar kind of lateral rail road system. These network in states will be backbone for quardtriangle.
In states like West Bengal inland water transport can also be linked. the RIVERs can also be tapped for transporting the produce from one place to other where rail or road is not available or if available then also INLAND WATER TRANSPORT system will be an added benefit. Specially to connect the RURAL areas.
RuralHUB concept is a good concept if it is implemented in light of nation building not as a corporate building exercise only.