DMRC to submit DPR for Tiruvananthapuram Light Metro this week

DMRC to submit DPR for Tiruvananthapuram Light Metro this week

Tiruvananthapuram (TVC): The Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Light Metro project in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode will be submitted to the government by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) this week.

The elevated Light Metro was mooted by the DMRC for 36.4 km in both the cities in place of the scrapped MRTS in view of the prohibitive cost quoted by the lone tender, Bombardier Transportation Holdings USA Inc. The DMRC was tasked to submit the DPR in four weeks by the board of Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd, set up for executing the project. The August 28 meeting was chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

The DPR has been vetted by DMRC Principal Adviser E. Sreedharan and is ready for submission to Mr. Chandy. The DMRC will soon make a presentation of the DPR for the people’s representatives in the capital.

Cost within limits

Traffic projections, route alignment, fares, funding options, operation and maintenance, land requirements, critical factors and way forward in the wake of the financial crisis have been spelled out in the DPR, worked out with the help of DMRC officials in Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi. The cost of the project is well within the limits of the State as the cost per km for elevated Light Metro comes to Rs.156 crore on an average, sources said.

The DMRC has said that they will submit the DPR before October 10, official sources told. The locations for the 19 stations along the 22.2-km Technocity-Karamana stretch in the capital and 15 on the 14.2-km stretch from Meenchanda to Medical College in Kozhikode have been retained. Slight changes have been made in busy localities such as Kesavadasapuram and Thampanoor. The demand to reroute alignment through Technopark has been skipped.

The DMRC has proposed three cars with a capacity of 600 persons and commissioning of the project in three years for Kozhikode and five years for the capital. The DMRC has used the updated traffic data with Natpac, which did the feasibility study for the MRTS in the capital. For Kozhikode, the DMRC has relied on the data of M/s Wilbur Smith.