Nearly three dozen stations in city and suburbs for monorail

Officials discuss tendering as well as facilities for stations at high-level meeting

The much-anticipated monorail is expected to have nearly three dozen stations in Chennai and its suburbs. This was decided at a high-level meeting headed by Transport Minister V. Senthil Balaji, held at the Secretariat on Friday.

The meeting started before noon and went on till around 1 p.m. Chief Secretary Debendranath Sarangi, Transport Secretary Braj Kishore Prasad, managing director of Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services (PTCS), V. Paulraj and managing director of Metropolitan Transport Corporation Limited (MTC), P.P. Rajendran as well as other officials were present.

“At the meeting, the officials discussed at length about how to implement the monorail project successfully. They also discussed the tendering process. The venue of the stations and the facilities that need to be offered to commuters was also taken up. The entire list of stations has not been finalised yet,” said an official.

Officials said that as far as short-listing of prospective project promoters is concerned, five out of eight consortiums of firms that participated have been zeroed upon. “This is just the initial stage. There are many more processes involved in implementing the project successfully. Already, eight meetings have been conducted. The government is very keen on implementing this project,” said the source.

An expert team was formed a couple of weeks ago to scout for monorail stations sites, and this study was completed two days ago. The team, comprising personnel from MTC, PTCS and a private consultancy firm, were given a time period of ten days to study and come up with sites where monorail stations can come up. “The accessibility factor was taken into consideration when the locations of the stations were being decided,” said a source.

The State 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.