CM sees work on city monorail taking off during Jan next

Work on the proposed 45-km long monorail project in Bangalore is scheduled to begin in January 2011 and it is expected to be completed in three years, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa said today. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs 7,700 crore.

Several global corporations, including Hitachi and Mitsubishi have shown a preliminary expression of interest in executing this city transport system. The monorail will act as a feeder route to the ongoing metro rail project and is being executed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model with the government acting as the facilitator.

Speaking in the state Legislative Assembly during Question Hour, he said the detailed project report on the monorail project would be ready by this month-end. “Tenders will be floated in September,” he said responding to separate questions on the metro and monorail projects raised by Ramalinga Reddy and K J George of Congress.

Yeddyurappa said a sum of Rs 2,700 crore has been spent on the first phase of the Rs 11,609 crore (42.3 km) Bangalore metro project so far, adding, Byappanahalli-Cricket Stadium stretch of the project is likely to be opened for traffic in December this year.

About 25 per cent of the work on the first phase of the metro project has been completed. The Centre has till May-end this year sanctioned Rs 539 crore for the metro project, the first phase of which will be ready by 2013, he said.

A detailed project report for the expansion of the metro project is presently under preparation, he added.

On June 15, the state government held the pre-bid conference for selecting the consultant to carry out a detailed project report.

Over a dozen companies attended the pre-bid conference.

Of the 45 kms of the project, 15.7 km stretch will be coming under the Swiss Challenge method with DPR being provided by Scomi-Geodesic.