Cost of Monorail a third of Metro Rail

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The proposed mono  rail system, connecting Kazhakkoottam and Balaramapuram, will cost around Rs 1,800 crore, according to rough estimates.  Even then, it will be one-third of the cost required to complete a metro rail for the same length."Monorail costs around Rs 65 crore per km, while a km of metro rail will cost around Rs 235 crore,’’ said N S Sreenivasan, transport expert and chairman of Transport Advisory Forum, Chennai. In fact, the proposal for Monorail Transport System for the State capital  was mooted by Sreenivasan in an article published in the ‘City Express’ a few months ago.The EIRR (Economic Internal Rate of Return) of the project is likely to be over 20 per cent.One of the major angles that will be covered in the proposed feasibility study by  NATPAC will be the cost factor. Cost, utilisation of minimal space and minimal land acquisition will make the system attractive to the city."Among the various mass transportation systems available, viz. mass rapid transit system (underground or elevated rail system - MRTS), monorail and bus rapid transit system, monorail is the most suited system for the volume of passenger traffic and the conditions prevailing on the arterial roads in medium-sized cities like Thiruvananthapuram.Experience has shown that the MRTS is most suited for large metropolitan cities, where the volume of passenger traffic is very high; whereas, in the case of medium-sized cities, the monorail is less expensive to build than a comparable MRTS of equal capacity,’’ Sreenivasan had noted in the City Express article.