Locations to be decided at empowered committee meeting to be held today
The expert team, which was formed to scout for monorail stations sites in the city, has completed its study.
The locations where the stations will come up will be decided at an empowered committee meeting scheduled to be held on Friday.
Besides, in order to focus on monorail and hasten the work, the government has transferred and posted V. Paulraj, the managing director of Metropolitan Transport Corporation Limited (MTC) as managing director of Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services (PTCS) a couple of days back.
P.P. Rajendran, managing director of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (Coimbatore), has replaced Mr. Paulraj.
The team comprising MTC, PTCS and a private consultancy was given a time period of ten days to study and come up with sites where monorail stations can come up.
“The team completed the study on time and have submitted a list of probable locations. The exact spots will be decided at an empowered committee meeting that is scheduled for Friday,” said an official.
The government's keenness on the monorail project is evident from the speed at which various measures are being taken up.
“There is a need for a person who can exclusively concentrate upon monorail. Hence, the managing director of MTC was transferred,” said an official.
The team, formed early this week, analysed the feasibility of the location to integrate different transport modes. Experts feel that stations should come up at places where a lot of people gather. “If they are not easily accessible, the mode will not be successful,” said an expert. Promoters out of eight consortia of firms have been shortlisted. Some of the qualified firms are Hitachi and Bombardier, L&T, Gammon and IL&FS.
A committee, under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, met about 10 days ago and zeroed in on the eligible consortia. The government has identified four corridors — Vandalur to Velachery (23 km), Poonamalee to Kathipara Junction (16 km), Poonamalee to Vadapalani (18 km) and Vandalur to Puzhal (54 km). Initially, work will be taken up on the first three corridors at a cost of Rs.8,500 crore. Work on the fourth corridor will be taken up later.
Keywords: Chennai monorail project, monorail, monorail sites
It feels good to witness leadership with a vision in pushing thru the monorail. Next steps
should be dedicated bus lanes and transport on the modernized waterways of Cooum and
Buckingham. A lot can be achieved to raise the stature of Chennai by the concerted efforts of
the capable and hardworking people of Tamil Nadu who deserve recognition rather than the
divisive politicking that has let the people down over the decades. The shift of focus towards
the positive can wring out progress in all spheres.
8500 crores seems an underestimate - the project might very likely
exceed this.
Hope the workers are well treated during this period and properly
compensated.
I just searched the web to be sure. Chennai is still the fourth largest City - not the eighth. In some web sites including Wikipedia, many areas of Chennai are listed as suburbs and hence the Population is wrongly tallied.
Chennai needs an integrated Public transport system as it is developing and expanding in three directions. It needs a minimum of 350 km of Metro system whereas the present distance of around 50 km is not sustainable. Mr.Sridharan will be the right person to advise on an integrated system for the City.Generally it is conceived that Metro is the right mode for a city like Chennai - not the Mono rail.The current state government is favoring Monorail as a political vendetta. Mammallapuram to Madhyakailsh alignmnet -either as Metro or Mono is a very good and essential Project. Let us prey that the powers that be will think with their brains.
instead of investing lot of money in monorail cleaning up the Cooum river and the Buckingham Canal would be better idea 1. transport of goods made easier and cheaper 2. thus traffic is reduced 3. less pollution
How about spending some money on toilets. 20% of the money going
into monorail will be enough to build toilets across Chennai.
What a relief it would be to see people using the toilets than
using the streets
The mono rail project is simply waste of public money. It is wiser to
expand the metro rail network rather than start a new project which is
not going to help much for mass transportation. Chennai is a growing
metropolis and a future proof project like metro rail is the right
option. Mono rail services around the globe have proved that it can
act as a feeder service to metro rail from the city suburbs. It cannot
be an alternative to a mass transportation system like metro rail. The
public is fooled into believe that they are getting alternative modes
of transportation but the actual fact is this project is an eye wash
to swindle public money by the current state government. As the metro
rail project is already planned and is under implementation the
current government would not get any "incentive" in backing up an existing project. No genuine intention by the government to improve
public infrastructure. But who cares if most of us willing to be
fooled.
And with this, Chennai, the eighth largest City in India would have far more multiplicity of transport authorities than any other city : 1. The Monorail, 2. Chennai Metro Rail 3. The Mass Rapid Transit Railway, 4. The Suburban Railway, 5. The Metropolitan bus service.
Cannot they decide on one mode : monorail or metro? why so much wasteage of resources. Monorail is hardly suited for Indian needs.
Doing Madya Kailah to Mahabalipuram is an excellent proposal. Hope the state government will listen and do this route.
India has the tech and Indian Techies can do most of the jobs, however it is the contractor and sub-contractors who are the worst. Because they supply and install third grade supplies by paying bribes to the management.
Fourth corridor - Vandalur to Puzhal (54 km) stretch will cover Porur,
Poonamalee and Avadi as a major stations top of that its close to Chennai
bypass with not much population around... Instead of pouring so much of
tax/borrowed money there considering lower population and lower returns
Government going to get, Government should think of having monorail
between Madya kailash to Mahabalipuram (which is close to 50kms) - On
week days all IT guys and residential area is growing rapidly in that
stretch will use it and on weekends it can turn out to be a tourism
corridor if it leads to Mahabalipuram - in this way both Government get
good returns and vehicle usage will come down drastically so accident
rate will come down in IT corridor. As a public I think even land
acquisition wont be a problem in this stretch. Media is the right tool to pass the information to Government.
I love the concept of mono rail more because of the routes. At least this plan has a vision. Hopefully they carry out this project ASAP and make sure it runs in parallel with other Metro and flyover projects. By 2017 Chennai must not face any hassles while commuting, if all these projects are completed.
Can the author or anyone comment on the difference between the existing MRTS, ongoing Metro and this upcoming Monorail projects. How are these three different from each other ? Rather than being awed at the fact Chennai will witness some great technological revolution in terms of transportation, i am worried that few years down the lane someone will be in some scam in all these undergoing projects.
Think about made in India Metro Train/Rail that was a project during NDA
regime. Since then abandoned just for vested interest. That indigenous
project could have save thousands of crores of India and would a
technological demonstrator to the world that we can make high end
technology in India. Revive that project.
I feel Thyles and Siemens should be included in the bid. Thyles operates one of the best train services in Europe. Siemens provide the best technology to the train systems in terms of controls, communications, automatic door closure, highly efficient inverter systems and electronic devices.
My suggestion would be to postpone the Vandalur - Puzal line and instead implement Tiruvanmiyur to Tiruporur on OMR and a "T" intersection from Toraipakkam to Airport on the 200 feet Radial road meeting the vandalur - Velacherry line as well as Beach - Tambaram suburban line. This way the connectivity would be better servicing a alrger population leaving the travelling public multiple choice.
Fail to understand why we need a monorail project when there is already
a metro project under progress. The whole thing smells rotten.
Instead of spending so much money on Monorail, while the Metro
has not even begun to test Chennai, the people of Chennai would be better off if they clean up the Cooum river and the Buccingham Canal.
Imagine how beaiful it would be, boats in the water, tourists enjoying the waterfront, musquito-free aiir. I am longing for the
good old days when our family used to sleep outdoors at night. I guess I am dreaming!
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