Centre approves Chennai Monorail Project
Soon Chennai is going to have a new mode of transportation with the monorail project back on track!
The Monorail project in Chennai has been recently approved by the Union Ministry of Urban Development with some conditions. In a Press Release issued by the ministry, it was announced that the Chennai Monorail project has been accorded in-prinicpal approval by the Union Development Ministry. The Project is going to be 20.68 Km and will cost Rs 3,267 crore. This project is going to be based on the design, build, finance, operate and transfer or DBFOT model.
With the monorail project, Kathipara and Poonamallee will be connected with a link between Vadapalani and Porur. According to the press release, the complete funding of the project would be done by the state government or the agencies of the state government or PPP partner, with no financial assistance from the Indian Government.
Certain conditions have also been set with the approval given by the Centre. One of the conditions is setting up of a separate agency for fare revision that needs to be done on the periodic basis. Secondly, after using monorail, the commuters must also gain easy access to other transportation modes. The state has also been asked by the centre to establish a legislation backed incorporated metropolitan transport authority that will be responsible for facilitating perfect coordination when planning and implementing urban transportation projects.
The Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Bill has already been passed by the state that has paved way for setting up of the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority, though, it has not been notified so far.
With the above mentioned formalities complete, a fresh impetus has been received by the Chennai Monoail Project that came into the news in the year 2011 but since then it has not been on the right track. 2-3 consortiums have expressed interest in the latest global tender of the Monorail Project of Chennai. Earlier, keen interest was also shown by Bombardier, the famous Monorail provider to participate in building the Monorail network of the city. Recently, a new entry has surprised all. A Chinese firm has also shown interest in the project. Technical details of the project will be discussed next week, after which chosen few firms will be contacted for the project.
Source: Time of India
Chennai Monorail project, Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Bill, DBFOT Model, Monorail project in Chennai, Union development ministry
