Metro Man in city on October 25

Use the opportunity, tell citizens

E. Sreedharan, popularly known as Metro Man, will be in city on October 25. He will participate in a discussion on an alternative public transport system best suited for Coimbatore, at the Chamber of Commerce. The city now largely depends on bus services.

Though the Coimbatore Corporation Council had proposed a Mass Rapid Transit System, consultants had declared it technically not feasible in Coimbatore. The suggestions on introducing a circular rail system, or a Bus Rapid Transit System, or a monorail too are yet to get concrete shape. R. Raveendran of Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore said that when it came to an alternative the public transportation system, Coimbatore always “missed the bus.”

MDMK

Coimbatore Corporation, Local Planning Authority, and Public Works Department officials should make use of metro railway consultant E. Sreedharan’s visit to Coimbatore to renew efforts to bring metro railway project to the city. Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s youth wing secretary V. Easwaran said here that the officials should meet Mr. Sreedharan for the purpose. Of the Tier-II cities the Union Government selected for implementing the project, Coimbatore was lagging behind. The Centre had said that if the State Government forwarded the project, it would approve the same and provide finance.

The State Government did not respond.

Even Kochi in Kerala has started the work. Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Ludhiana had completed the project report. Indore, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Surat, Kanpur, Patna, Nagpur, and Jaipur have started preparing the project report.

Mr. Easwaran said that the State Government must recommend the project immediately because it would take eight years for completing the project. By then the population would have increased and so would have the number of vehicles.

The government must not go in for monorail project just because the DMK government had proposed the metro railway project. The government must go in for a feasibility study so that it could decide which one to choose.