A 41.8-km monorail, an elevated rail-based mass rapid transit system (MRTS), has been found feasible for implementation in the capital city in the busy Pallippuram-Ulloor-Overbridge-Killipalam-Neyyattinkara corridor on a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) mode.
The project, expected to reduce the dependence on personalised modes of transport and take away 40 per cent of road traffic, has been given the green signal in a feasibility study carried out by the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (Natpac).
The report, submitted to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday in the presence of Minister for Transport V.S. Sivakumar, says the 22.2-km first phase of the project, from Pallippuram to Thampanoor, can be commissioned by 2016 if the construction commences by 2013. The report has been forwarded to the Transport Department. The 19.6-km second phase from Thampanoor to Neyyattinkara will be ready for commissioning by January 2018. The first phase will cost Rs.2,775 crore and the second, Rs.2,324 crore. The cost works out to Rs.125 crore a km in the first phase and Rs.118.7 a km in the second phase.
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“The crucial Financial Internal Rate of Return (FIRR) has been found to be 7 per cent to 13 per cent and the economical internal rate of return has been found to be 12.6 per cent in the analysis and hence the project is feasible for implementation,” Natpac Director B. Sridevi who headed the study team along with scientists Tomy Cyriac and Shaheen S. told
Land acquisition
The study has found that only minimum land acquisition is needed for the project, and will need around Rs.479 crore for acquisition.
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The alignment formation is estimated to cost Rs.1,168 crore and each monorail station building is to cost Rs. 8.26 crore.
The first phase will culminate in front of the Sreekumar Theatre. Skywalk has been proposed from here to East Fort via Power House road, to the KSRTC's central station and to Trivandrum Central railway station. The monorail tickets are expected to cost around the same as that of the AC low-floor buses operating in the city.