Palike plans pod cars to cut pressure on city's roads, experts sceptical

The BBMP has embarked on an ambitious project of starting pod taxi services in the city to ease traffic. The Palike has floated global tenders for it.

BBMP commissioner

N Manjunatha Prasad is confident that this project would give relief from traffic jams and will compliment the Metro services.

He said, “Minister K J George and Mayor G Padmavathi have directed speeding  up the Pod Taxi project. We have called for global tenders. We will start the project in six to eight months.”

He explained that five routes have been identified in the initial phase. The project will be started in Indiranagar and Whitefield on a trial basis. After seeing the pros and cons, the Palike will implement it in other parts of the city. The pillars for the Pod Taxis will be built on the median of the roads. The BBMP is in touch with companies from the United States and New Zealand for the project.

The commissioner said the Pod Taxis have been successful in Mexico and other developed nations.
“This is one of the best projects to rid the city of traffic jams. This can be used as feeder services for Metro rail. The best part is that no trees will be felled for this project. It will run on solar energy, which makes it environment friendly. This project will be implemented after consulting experts,” Prasad said.

Traffic expert M N Sreehari and traffic engineer S Suresh Kumar have opposed the project saying that it cannot be implemented in the city.

They said the roads in Bengaluru are in bad shape due to various infrastructure projects. The construction of pillars in the middle of the road would affect vehicular movement. This project is nothing but squeezing the citizens of Bengaluru.

Instead of giving people relief from messy traffic, BBMP wants people to stare at a sky-basket.
Sreehari said, “This scheme cannot succeed because the carrying capacity of these sky-taxis is only five to six people.”

He felt this project has been planned to loot public money after failing to implement the steel flyover.