Will Chennai Monorail finally take off?

Plans for Chennai’s Monorail, which have moved in fits and starts since 2011, may get a fresh impetus, with two or three consortiums, including a Chinese one, evincing interest in the latest global tender

The Chennai Monorail project’s latest global tender, the third such attempt since 2011, has received submissions of interest from two to three consortiums.

Apart from Monorail providers like Bombardier that have previously expressed interest in participating in building the city’s Monorail network, a surprising new entrant to the fray is a Chinese firm that runs the Monorail system in the mountainous city of Chongqing.

Chongqing’s 75-km-long Monorail network became the world’s longest system in September 2011, beating the one in the Japanese city of Osaka. The Chinese city has a ‘heavy’ Monorail system that can carry more passengers and, perhaps, more importantly for Chennai, is integrated with the Metro network.

A senior government official said that a Monorail sub-committee would meet next week to go over the technical details, following which, all the firms that qualify would be invited for talks.

Ever since the initial global tender on August 15, 2011, Chennai’s Monorail plans have moved in fits and starts. Bids have been invited four times, several rounds of talks have been held, and the technical requirements to qualify for the project have been watered down half a dozen times. Yet, developer interest in the project has been lukewarm.

“It’s primarily an issue of securing funding for the project,” said an official in a Monorail firm that has been involved in previous negotiations. Since the proposal is to develop the system in PPP mode, private firms won’t invest money unless there is a potential for healthy profits, he said.

Kerala recently dropped its plans for Monorail systems in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, citing the high costs that were quoted by Bombardier. However, sources say, there is strong political backing in Tamil Nadu. The Jayalalithaa-led government was one of the first in the country to float plans for building a Monorail system back in 2006. The government also recently allocated Rs. 200 crore for the project.

There is one hurdle peculiar to Tamil Nadu, though. “The Monorail contract is for a period of over 30 years,” a well-placed source said. Very few developers want to take the risk in a state like Tamil Nadu where the fate of projects depends on the political party in power, he added.