With polls round the corner, pod taxis may not take off now

BENGALURU: The government’s much-hyped personalized rapid transport project — pod taxis — may not become a reality soon.
Mayor Sampath Raj had earlier said they were hopeful of starting the groundwork in January. But now Palike sources said the project won’t take off till the assembly elections are over.
BBMP chief engineer (major roads) S Somashekhar said the project is in the technical-evaluation stage, a time-consuming process.
The project became controversial after BBMP received only one bid from a consortium, comprising Smart Personal Rapid Transit Systems, Ultra PRT and Bengaluru-based Embassy Property Developments Private Limited, and decided to go ahead with the sole bidder. In January, the civic agency opened the technical bid from the sole bidder and related evaluation is still on.
BBMP sources said though they have identified several routes, the current focus is on Trinity Circle to Whitefield via Leela Palace and Marathahalli as a pilot. “Since this 16.5-km route doesn’t have any major transport project, we may go ahead with it,” they added.
Pod taxis are electric pod cars generally used for feeder and shuttle services for small groups of travellers. Recently, Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said they invited expression of interest (EoI) to execute India’s maiden pod taxi project on the Delhi-Gurugram corridor.
PROPOSED ROUTES
Trinity Circle to Leela Palace (4km), Leela Palace to Marathahalli junction (6km), Marathahalli junction to Whitefield (6.5km), MG Road Metro station to Koramangala-HSR Layout (7km), Jayanagar 4th Block to JP Nagar 6th Phase (5.3km) and Sony Junction to Indiranagar Metro station (6.7km).