Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) as a mass transport project for Coimbatore seems to be back in the reckoning. Or at least that is what State Government officials are hinting at.
Commissioner for Municipal Administration G. Prakash hinted as much here on Monday when he asked the Indo-German Smart Initiative group to prepare a detailed project report for the city. He was speaking at the ‘Coimbatore Smart City Project’ event organised by the German India Round Table’s Coimbatore Chapter.
Mr. Prakash said the Corporation would be looking at three BRTS corridors along Avniashi Road, Mettupalayam Road and Sathyamangalam Road.
His comments come at a time when the city residents were under the impression that the State Government would help the city have a metro rail project.
Mr. Prakash said for a city like Coimbatore that had 18 lakh population, metro train would not be feasible and if implemented, it would be economically infeasible, forcing the government to subsidise the tickets.
And, Coimbatore’s case could not be compared with that of Kochi, which just started its metro trains service, because the geography was different.
He also informed the gathering that Coimbatore would soon be home to a lab from German firm Fraunhofer, which would offer technical expertise for urban development projects.
The lab was the outcome of an agreement between the governments of India and Germany.
The experts, who would visit the lab, would also train municipal officials across the State.
Coimbatore Corporation Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan spoke about various initiatives the civic body had taken up under the Smart Cities project and the progress made in schemes like the 24x7 drinking water supply scheme.
Experts from Germany Andreas Waldraff, Chairman, German India Round Table, Gresser and Walter, engineers and architects, and Marcus Jeutner, urban planner, spoke on their urban development projects in various cities and said how they could help Coimbatore.
