Chennai: Chennai Monorail, the dream project of late chief minister Jayalalithaa, seems to be history now. The proposal for the project was mooted some eight years ago, but till date not even the paper works have been completed and the tender process for the hyped projects remains a mirage, confirmed highly placed sources. According to confidential sources, the state is no way in a position to go ahead with the monorail project for various reasons. Though the Centre accorded permission for the project in 2014, funding is a huge problem for the project initially estimated to cost around Rs 3,267 crore, now with project delay it would come around Rs 4,000 crore. Further finding a technical consultant and a contractor to execute the project is a tough task and has rusted the project for several years.
Third, the state is now focused on Chennai metro rail extension and the interlinking of Mass Rapid Transit System. Above all, the Centre had laid too many conditions for the project while giving its principle clearance for monorail corridor proposed between Poonamallee and Kathipara with a link from Porur to Vadapalani running to an extent of 20.68 kilometres, sources said. To speed up the transport related projects in the state Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) were established in 2012 and the last meeting the committee had was in 2013, when Senthil Balaji was the transport minister, since then there is no progressive meetings, sources added.
Confirming that the monorail project is shelved and will be a history another senior official said that the recent 2017 budget speech by state finance minister D. Jayakumar had no mention about monorail and there is no financial sanction for the project in this fiscal. The minister mentioned about the sanction of Rs 2,192 crore for state transport and the implementation of the metro rail Corridor-I from Washermenpet to Thiruvotriyur / Wimco Nagar at a cost of Rs 3,770 crore.
This is an indication that the project is shelved, but for political reasons, the project will continue to remain as a proposal, the informed official quipped. “No one talks about monorail and people have also forgotten about the project. All we need is more air conditioned buses and mini buses and early completion of metro rail”, said N. Karthick,a software professional residing in Thuraipakkam.
