Ahmedabad hops on the monorail bandwagon

The Gujarat government finally zeroed in on a mono rail to connect one of the busiest sections of the city — the railway station at Kalupur and Income Tax circle. After debating over setting up an elevated metro rail system to connect this part of the city with the BRTS and other modes of transport, the government decided on the mono rail as a more financially viable option than an elevated metro, although this service will be connected to the metro rail. The metro railway is expected to run between Thaltej and Income Tax circle. The four kilometre stretch of the mono rail will run over the high density traffic zones of Shahpur and Delhi Darwaja. Officials said the decision to have mono rail was taken after its successful trial run in Mumbai. “Apart from the cost effectiveness, the space taken up by the mono rail was even less as compared to the metro,” said a state government official. If the mono rail costs around Rs 85 crore per km, the metro costs over Rs 150 crore. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) submitted a detailed project report to the state government which wants the portion of the Thaltej- Kalupur metro line in the first phase to go underground. The state government has also proposed that the 10.9 km east-west metro line be shifted from the Income Tax circle towards Relief Road. A senior officer, who is involved in the planning, said the mono rail would also be a shorter train as compared to the metro. Metro rail service has the capacity to take 40,000 passengers per hour during peak hours, but mono rail, which moves on a single track, can carry only 10,000 passengers per hour. The advantage is that the mono rail can ride over busy and overcrowded areas which metro train cannot, and keeps a speed of 65 km per hour, going up to 80 km at a stretch.