Govt puts monorail back on track

Govt puts monorail back on track
DH News Service, Bangalore:
The tottering H D Kumaraswamy Cabinet has put the mono rail project for Bangalore back on track by approving the technical and commercial proposals submitted by Asia Infrastructure consortium (ASC) under the Swiss Challenge System (SCS).

The Cabinet, that met without the 18 BJP ministers who resigned on Tuesday, took this decision on Friday.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavaraj Horatti, while briefing the media about the Cabinet decisions, said ASC has been given two months’ time to submit a detailed project report.


“Based on the report, the government will take a decision on calling tenders,” he stated. ASC consists of MTrans International Limited, a Malaysian company, and Hansutta Finance Limited.

ASC has proposed to put in place 84-km mono rail with six alignments, which will act as a feeder system for the ongoing Namma Metro. The cost per km of the mono rail project, as per the Consortium’s estimate, is around Rs 80 crore.

But the State government had earlier announced that the mono rail will be 51 kms’ long with four corridors — from Kanakapura road to Mysore road along the Outer Ring Road with a T connection from Katriguppe to National College, Basavanagudi (corridor I); from Bannerghatta National Park to Adugodi along Bannerghatta road (corridor II); from Tumkur road to Bellary road (III) and Mysore road to Tumkur road along Outer Ring Road with a T connection from Toll Gate to Magadi road (IV). According to official sources, the Consortium has proposed to not only to use these corridors but also added some more, increasing its total length.

It was Deccan Herald that reported first that the government will throw the mono rail project open under SCS.
Originally, the government had entrusted the task of implementing the mono rail project to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC), a special purpose vehicle that is implementing Namma Metro.

But the government suddenly changed its mind and took the project back from BMRC. It also scrapped all three consortiums proposed by BMRC as qualified for being mono rail project consultants.

Under SCS, a project proposed by a private firm will first be vetted by the government.