The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Monorail to run along ring road

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 20, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Monorail to run along ring road

Govind D. Belgaumkar

BMRC will soon appoint consultants to decide on type of monorail

BANGALORE: The State Government has decided to have monorail in four corridors in the city and to entrust their implementation to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRC). This will be an additional responsibility for the BMRC, which is implementing the proposed Rs. 6,300-crore 33-km metro rail project.

BMRC Managing Director V. Madhu told The Hindu that monorails had been proposed at the following corridors: Kanakapura Road to Mysore Road (along the ring road) with a diversion to take the monorail from Kathriguppe to National College; Bannerghatta National Park to Adugodi; Jnanabharathi to Magadi Road also along the ring road with a diversion to take the monorail to Toll Gate where the metro rail will have a station; and Bellary Road to Tumkur Road again along the ring road.

Panel's decision

Mr. Madhu said the decision to have four monorail lines (with two of them having diversions) was taken by a high-level committee, headed by Chief Secretary B.K. Das.

The Government passed the order entrusting the supervision of the implementation of this project last week.

The move assumes significance in view of the contradictory stands taken by the promoters of monorail and metro rail.

Implementation of the two systems by one agency would ensure that the systems were implemented without "hurting one another," Mr. Madhu said.

Consultants

Since the two projects involved investments of crores of rupees, this was important, he said.

He said the BMRC would soon appoint consultants to decide the type of monorail. Later, the BMRC would call for the expression of interest through global tender, Mr. Madhu said.

Metro rail can carry 20,000 to 60,000 people per hour in one direction while monorail can transport about 15,000 people under the same parameters.

While metro rail costs Rs. 150 crore a km, the cost of monorail was not known.

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