After the introduction of city buses connecting Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, the state government has mooted a monorail transit system for the twin cities.
Chief secretary B K Patnaik has urged the department of housing & urban development to have a pre-feasibility study of the proposed project following a presentation by New Delhi-based Engineering Projects India Ltd ( EPI), a Government of India enterprise.
Patnaik has also called for examining the viability of the project, operational expenditure and the likely tariff that the users have to pay.
Monorail system is a technological innovation entailing many advantages for optimum flow of passengers. It provides a smooth ride quality, higher passenger capacity, energy efficiency, lower capital and operating costs and environment friendly transport needs. The construction cost of the monorail system is pegged at Rs 150 per km.
Monorail is a quiet system with sleek exteriors and air-conditioned compartments. Each monorail can contain two to eight compartments. Average time of travel is approximately two minutes for every km. Train frequency can vary from five to 10 minutes. The train will run above the ground, thereby occupying very little place on the ground for construction of its pillars. The train can run easily in the fly-over bridges with fixing of one additional beam on its pillars.
