He was speaking on the sidelines of Manthan- a session on improving road infrastructure and mobility. Various Union/ State Ministers and senior officials in the Government of India participated in the event.
"We are working on public transport on electricity. Technology has changed a lot. It's difficult to acquire land in Bengaluru. So, I suggested the use of Skybus like in the Philippines and other countries," the Union Minister said according to news agency PTI.
Skybus is a mass transit system consisting of elevated tracks with cables suspended below. The system is eco-friendly and cost-effective and is similar to metro services. Skybus runs on electricity and can have a speed up to 100 Km/hr. The system is comparatively economical from the metro and the requirement of infrastructure is also less.
Skybus services were also envisioned by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Goa. He wanted to launch the 100 crores of service as a new year's gift in 2003, but the project failed to get off the ground.
Konkan Railways Corporation also discontinued the Skybus project terming it as “commercially unviable".
The minister also informed that he has asked the officials of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to consult experts and find the required solution for the city.
Gadkari also informed that the Ministry of Road and Transport will finance the project.
“Since this is our department's mandate, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai discussed it with me. We are studying it (Skybus) and we want to do it. If lakhs of people travel in the sky then the problem below will be solved," he said.
Heavy rains and flooding have choked Bengaluru for several days now, people are desperate to use extreme ways to travel from one place to another. Technology firms are planning to purchase boats in order to deal with such situations in the future.
Amid such transport crises, Manthan was organized in order to establish cooperation, coordination and communication between the states on improving road infrastructure and mobility.
“In this Manthan under the Bharatmala series, 80 Ministers and 140 officials including principal secretaries and chief engineers from the Centre and the States from the public works departments, transport and industry participated," Gadkari said.
