Odisha to consider monorail transit system for twin cities

In a bid to provide rapid and safe mass transport, Odisha government has envisioned a futuristic plan for setting up Monorail transit system in the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

A proposal to set up the facility has been given by Engineering Projects India Limited (EPI), official sources said here on Wednesday.

A presentation made before the state government described the monorail system as a technological innovation entailing many advantages for optimum flow of passengers.

It provides a smooth ride quality, higher passenger capacity, energy efficiency, lower capital and operating costs and environment friendly transport needs.

Monorail has sleek exteriors and air-conditioned compartments. Each monorail can contain two to eight compartments. Average time of travel is likely to be approximately two minutes for every kilometre, they said.

Train frequency can vary from every 5 minutes to 10 minutes. The train will run above the ground thereby occupying very little place on the ground for construction of its pillars. The train can run easily on the fly-over bridges by fixing of one additional beam on its pillars.

According to experts, the construction of monorail facility may involve an investment of only Rs 150 crore per kilometre, sources said.Chief Secretary B K Patnaik has suggested the Housing and Urban development department to have a pre-feasibility study of the proposed project.

The department has also been asked to work out the viability of the projects, running expenditure per kilometre, the likely tariff that the passenger will have to pay and other related factors. EPI's engineer S P S Bakshi and a team of experts from the organisation had a discussion with state government officials yesterday on the matter.