The much-awaited Cabinet approval for the Rs 14,600-crore Chennai metro rail project, aimed at addressing the rapidly growing traffic and providing affordable mode of public transport in India's fourth largest city came on Wednesday. The Chennai metro rail project was given approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) of the Union government late on Wednesday night.
Of the total estimated cost of the project 50 per cent will be met through a soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as part of Official Development Assistance to India by the Japanese government. “The loan will carry interest rate ranging from 0.3-1.2 per cent per annum with the repayment period ranging from 15-30 years including the grace period,” according to a statement of Japanese Embassy in India.
The central government will contribute 15 per cent of the project cost as equity and 5 per cent as subordinate debt. The remaining share of 21 per cent will be met in the form of equity (15 per cent) and subordinate debt (six per cent) by the Tamil Nadu government.
The Chennai metro project is reported to be the fastest in reaching financial closure among all the metro rail projects by securing Japanese government funding in 12 months and government of India funding in 14 months. The same process reported to have taken over two-and a half-years in other cities.
The Tamil Nadu government has formed a special purpose vehicle, Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL), on 50:50 equity basis on patterns of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation pattern, to implement the 45 km metro rail project, which will consist of two corridors. Covering a length of 24 km will be underground and 21 km, elevated.
The project is scheduled for completion by fiscal 2014-15 and is expected to earn total revenues Rs 435.26 crore during the first year of operations. The SPV has already floated tenders for the elevated viaduct and the applications are being evaluated.
“The funds from JICA will be made available based on the milestones or progress achieved in the project,” said Dr T V Somanathan, secretary to chief minister (monitoring) government of Tamil Nadu and managing director, Chennai Metro Rail. The ever growing vehicular and passenger demands coupled with constraints on capacity augmentation of the existing network have resulted in chaotic condition during peak hours of the day in the city.
The traffic in Chennai metro would see a growth of over 90 per cent by 2028 and public transport is seen as one of the key solutions to ease traffic in the city. It was felt that public transport should increase from the present 35 per cent to 60 per cent to keep pace with the growing traffic. Hence, it was decided to build a metro rail system to provide a better public transport system in Chennai metropolis, having a population of about eight million. The metro system requires only 20 per cent of the energy used by a road-based system, causes no air pollution and creates less noise.
It will occupy no road space where underground and only two metres where elevated. A single six coach metro train will remove 16 buses or 300 cars or 600 two wheelers from the roads at peak hours. It is expected that the trains will run every five minutes.
The metro is expected to shift 13 lakh passengers per day from the roads by 2026, save over 100 lives a year by reducing fatal accidents, and avoid 500 nonfatal accidents per annum and reduce journey times by 50-75 per cent, according to an official statement.
Of the total estimated cost of the project 50 per cent will be met through a soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as part of Official Development Assistance to India by the Japanese government. “The loan will carry interest rate ranging from 0.3-1.2 per cent per annum with the repayment period ranging from 15-30 years including the grace period,” according to a statement of Japanese Embassy in India.
The central government will contribute 15 per cent of the project cost as equity and 5 per cent as subordinate debt. The remaining share of 21 per cent will be met in the form of equity (15 per cent) and subordinate debt (six per cent) by the Tamil Nadu government.
The Chennai metro project is reported to be the fastest in reaching financial closure among all the metro rail projects by securing Japanese government funding in 12 months and government of India funding in 14 months. The same process reported to have taken over two-and a half-years in other cities.
The Tamil Nadu government has formed a special purpose vehicle, Chennai Metro Rail (CMRL), on 50:50 equity basis on patterns of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation pattern, to implement the 45 km metro rail project, which will consist of two corridors. Covering a length of 24 km will be underground and 21 km, elevated.
The project is scheduled for completion by fiscal 2014-15 and is expected to earn total revenues Rs 435.26 crore during the first year of operations. The SPV has already floated tenders for the elevated viaduct and the applications are being evaluated.
“The funds from JICA will be made available based on the milestones or progress achieved in the project,” said Dr T V Somanathan, secretary to chief minister (monitoring) government of Tamil Nadu and managing director, Chennai Metro Rail. The ever growing vehicular and passenger demands coupled with constraints on capacity augmentation of the existing network have resulted in chaotic condition during peak hours of the day in the city.
The traffic in Chennai metro would see a growth of over 90 per cent by 2028 and public transport is seen as one of the key solutions to ease traffic in the city. It was felt that public transport should increase from the present 35 per cent to 60 per cent to keep pace with the growing traffic. Hence, it was decided to build a metro rail system to provide a better public transport system in Chennai metropolis, having a population of about eight million. The metro system requires only 20 per cent of the energy used by a road-based system, causes no air pollution and creates less noise.
It will occupy no road space where underground and only two metres where elevated. A single six coach metro train will remove 16 buses or 300 cars or 600 two wheelers from the roads at peak hours. It is expected that the trains will run every five minutes.
The metro is expected to shift 13 lakh passengers per day from the roads by 2026, save over 100 lives a year by reducing fatal accidents, and avoid 500 nonfatal accidents per annum and reduce journey times by 50-75 per cent, according to an official statement.
No comments:
Post a Comment