Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 1105

Chapter 1105: Metro…

4th September 1692

Back in Europe, the Greeks were having a blast bullying the English and the French in the negotiations for the riots they funded, while in the dark, assassinations of everyone who had involvement in the ambush of Vijay were being carried out throughout England and France. Overnight, dozens of nobles and important military personnel dropped dead through various means and King Stuart as well as Louis, receiving the intel of the assassinations, were annoyed and left gritting their teeth. Originally they came up with multiple ways to damage the Bharatiya Empire, but not only did they fail, they ended up getting hurt very badly from the backlash.

Louis looked at his subordinate, his fist clenched, “Has someone been caught yet?” He asked.

The subordinate trembled and fell down on one knee, “I am sorry, your Highness, we were unable to catch the assassin.”

Louis’s eyes narrowed as his knuckles dug into his palm; he was ready to snap, “I need a reason,” he muttered with a gritty voice like a tiger’s purr.

The subordinate nervously gulped, “They are not attacking directly, your highness; they are attacking either from a long distance or using some unorthodox means like slow-acting poisons and other things.” Thinking about something, he explained with sweat dripping from his brows, “In fact we thought that count Michael died of a heart attack due to natural causes, as there was no wound on his body, but after someone in my team with a sensitive nose felt that the smell of the body was wrong did we understand that he might have been poisoned.”

Louis banged the table in frustration, “Damnit!”

—

While the European Kings were in a very bad mood, Agni happily returned to his previous post of assisting the chief Secretary of the Emperor’s office, Ganesh, in his day-to-day affairs. Work in this post is extremely hard. If the Emperor wants something to happen, Ganesh first splits the task into multiple departments, and the task is given to people like him who is assisting Ganesh, and it is his duty to divide the task even further and, with the help of several assistants in the office, connect with the departments personally and make sure the work is done exactly like the Emperor wants.

Agni was not complaining, of course. Working in the Emperor’s office for over a year, he understood all of the executive branches, be it the police, the judiciary, the military, the logistics, and other things. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he knew about the governance and various departments of the Empire more than the Prime Minister.

Anyway, before he officially signed in to work, Agni carried the plan proposed by Bengaluru Panchayat and took it to the Emperor.

Reading through the proposal left Vijay in thought. When Kavya’s novel 2012 came out, he knew that there was discussion among the people to realise the intercity rail connectivity, but it was unexpected that people would actually propose to build it so quickly.

Not that it was not feasible, just that he felt weird. Even before combustion engines came out, the Empire was already planning on introducing an intercity Metro Network.

Shaking his head and looking at the plan, he was impressed, even a little shocked, because the Metro transportation plan proposed looked extremely similar to the metro that had been set up in Bengaluru in his past life, of course, without the compromises that then Bengaluru had to make.

By the time he was reborn, Bengaluru had 5 metro lines with tracks using both tunnels and overpasses. It was the second largest metro in India, only second to the capital.

The Metro Line proposed by the Panchayat was not that extensive and has only proposed two routes, one from the south of Bengaluru from a town called Oyambara Nagara to the north till Nagavara, and Kadugodi in the east to Kengeri in the west.

Thinking about it, Vijay felt that the two lanes were perfect and adding more was unnecessary. After all, Bengaluru is a city built with an interlocking layout and wide roads, which are still able to handle the traffic. The only reason the plan was put forward was because in several key locations cars and carriages had to stop at a traffic junction at least 30 minutes, which for him, who came from the future, does not sound too long, but for the people of this era, especially for the people of the Bharatiya Empire, that is forever, so they thought of introducing the metro.

The plan was complete with an estimation of investment, various troubles that can show up, and other things. The solutions proposed were also feasible, so he thought that it was right to green-light the project, but he had to consider the important factor for it to work.

Vijay looked toward Agni, “What does Heyram think? Is there a suitable power system?” He asked, ” In the proposal, the panchayat put forward conditions for the train to be smaller and quicker. Can it be made? ”

Agni excitedly nodded, “I asked about this with Vedant, and he said that Heyram is in the process of developing a 4-cylinder steam engine, the Balvaan 5th generation. The power it can produce should at least double. When I asked if it is possible to make a special edition of the same engine focused towards speed rather than power, like the miniature versions which come in two versions for tractors and cars, he said it is feasible. The development of the engine is in its final stages, so father, I think it is feasible to construct the infrastructure first and then assign the train.” Thinking about it, he added, “Besides, even if something goes wrong, we can always use the 4th generation, it has already proven itself.”

“As for fabricating the body, it should not be a problem. I have sent the requirements to the locomotive manufacturers, and they said it is not a big problem.”

Vijay was happy that Agni investigated things thoroughly, so without hesitation, he greenlit the project, “Alright, let’s do it.” He took up the pen and approved the proposal put forward by the panchayat and passed it to Agni to handle the rest.

Agni was very happy that the proposal he had great hopes for was accepted by his father, and he was left in charge to handle the rest of the matters.

The very next day, a tender notice was sent to all the top construction firms in the empire.

The headquarters of various construction companies across the empire were boiling.

Rana Pratap of Bhonsle Construction read the invitation to participate in the tender from the Emperor’s office, and he shot up in an instant. “Cancel all my appointments,” he yelled so that his assistant on the other side of the wall could hear as he began packing his things in a rush. Then he paused, and with a little thought, he gave more instructions, “Get me the chief engineer, oh, and book two tickets to Bengaluru as well.”

Peshwa Reddy and Manas from the frontier construction firm, a company which had become famous for handling high complexity tasks for the last decade, also received the invitation, and both the owner and chief engineer acted the same way as Rana Pratap did, they set aside their previous itinerary entirely and set off to Bengaluru.

The scenes in Singhha Construction Company, Shetty Construction Company, and Kalyan Construction Company were no different. All got on trains and immediately set off to the capital.

Three days later, all of them sat in front of Agni at the proposed time, all looking at the proposal put forward by the Panchayat.

“What do you guys think?” Agni asked.

Manas, the chief engineer of the Frontier Construction firm, spoke out, “It’s an ingenious solution to handle traffic, your Highness. It is feasible, but building a track on an elevated bridge has never been done before.

“We do not know how this bridge will handle earthquakes, winds, and other things; we will have to experiment with it, but overall, theoretically, it is feasible. We do have the technical capability to construct something like this.”

Agni nodded, “What about the tunnels, are they feasible?” He was curious because he thought this was the hardest part of the project.

This time, Manas did not have to answer. Rana Pratap, the director of Bhosle Construction Company, directly spoke out, “Tunnels are not that hard, your majesty, we have experience in this regard since we have built railway tracks going into the tunnel.

“The soil of Bengaluru is quite hard. Our company has done plenty of construction work hear for private clients, so we know this well. The tunnel should be quite safe as it is, but even if some sections have softer soil, we can reinforce the tunnel with concrete and provide proper drainage and ventilation to ensure there’s no risk of collapse.”

All the other contractors nodded in agreement.

“Alright, place your bids and the contractor will be decided by the end of the month.”

The contractors were already used to the way tenders were held in the Emperor’s office, so they immediately pulled out a paper with practised ease and placed their proposal into a ballot box.

Agni looked at each and every proposal and, was very satisfied, the cost they proposed was well within the budget his father was willing to allocate, over 200 million Varaha, but when he saw the bid placed by Frontier Construction Firm he was surprised, because the bid was actually over the budget, 245 million Varaha, but the reason written moved him, the construction company is willing to bear the expenses needed for the research of the bridges in order to resist earthquakes, winds, and other things, and is also willing to guarantee the construction within the next ten years, and along with the construction they are willing to do the repairs for free.

Without hesitation, he chose the last option, “I need to talk to father about this,” he muttered as he rubbed his temples.

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