Kerala drops monorail projects, opts for light metro

Kerala has decided to drop the proposed mono rail project planned for the state capital and Kozhikode on grounds of the high cost involved and will study the option of light metro instead, a minister said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters here, after a high level meeting of experts, Public Works Minister V.K.Ebrahim Kunju said the decision was arrived to drop the project because it was so expensive.

"We had just one company who had participated in the tender and the cost was high. Now we have asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to prepare a project report on light metro to replace the mono rail project and they would submit it in four weeks time," he said.

Incidentally it was in August three years back, soon after the Oommen Chandy government assumed office, the state cabinet gave the nod for a feasibility study for a monorail to be set up in the capital city and later one in Kozhikode too, with the aim of reducing traffic on the main roads.

In the state capital, it was supposed to run through 22 kms, while at Kozhikode it was for a 14 kms stretch.

At that time the total project cost for the two centres was fixed around Rs.5,500 crore, but after more than two years, when the tender was called the only company that came had quoted for around Rs.10,390 crore. Finding the cost a heavy burden, the government decided to drop it and look for the light metro, for which the DMRC has already done a preliminary study.