How SkyBus project for Hyderabad got nixed

The Sky Bus as a mode of transport in South Asian countries had so impressed Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then prime minister of Malaysia, that he offered Rs.2,000 crore (over $322 million) as an outright grant to finance the project in Hyderabad.

Unfortunately, then prime minister Manmohan Singh, to whom Badawi had made the offer in a letter dated Sep 18, 2006, did not respond, paving the way for the promising project's gradual demise, B. Rajaram, former managing director of Konkan Railway, told media from Herendon in the US. Badawi had also mentioned his choice of Hyderabad because of its long association with Rajaram, who had designed and developed the Sky Bus, regarded as one of the most iconic symbols of Indian engineering skills.
Significantly, then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had allocated Rs.500 crore for the Sky Bus project in Goa, on the basis of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's recommendation as his principal scientific advisor, to support "the initiative to redefine metro technology". Unfortunately, the allocation remained only on paper, because of the machinations of the import lobby, alleged Rajaram. The railway board even officially forbade him from speaking about the Sky Bus, he added. The Railway Board also refused permission for special purpose vehicle (SPV) with the government of Goa, which wanted the Sky Bus done in collaboration with Konkan Railway, said Rajaram. The technology still remains the most cost-effective alternative to the Metro rail at Rs.60-75 crore per route km, as compared to Rs.215 crore for the Metro overland line and Rs.400 crore for the underground Metro, according to Rajaram. Rajaram had built the first Sky Bus prototype in only 90 days at a cost of Rs.7 crore raised from corporate entities and at zero cost to the railways. He had showcased the Sky Bus as a concept for the very first time at the World Transport Forum in Bologna in Italy in 1989.
He proposed suspension of wheels from rails placed at the top, rather than at the bottom, which would harness gravity to bind the wheels even more firmly to the tracks, eliminating the risk of derailment and capsizing of coaches.

"So much for our attitudes to technology. Our younger generations will doggedly keep inspecting, washing trains, laying tracks, look for safe retirement - that is the role model we enforce," Rajaram said.