Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) has envisaged ‘metro neo’, a cost-effective system of mass rapid transport (MRT), to ferry commuters en masse in the six-km Thripunithura-Kakkanad (Infopark) corridor and in the 4-km MG Road-Menaka-Park Avenue Road-Hospital Road-MG Road corridor.
The development comes as the metro agency is readying to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the commissioning of the metro (in the 12-km-long Aluva-Palarivattom corridor). “The metro neo will be like the trolley bus system in Europe. Such a corridor built along the road would cost about ₹35 crore per km, while an elevated stretch would cost approximately ₹60 crore per km. A four-km metro neo stretch can be built for the same cost as a kilometre of conventional metro rail,” KMRL managing director Loknath Behera told The Hindu on Monday.
“The elevated rail can be taken along the side of narrow roads [like Banerjee Road] and through the centre of wide roads [like Shanmukham Road]. Being a corridor having high footfall potential, this could even be tried out to link the metro’s terminal stations that are proposed in Thripunithura and at Kakkanad [Infopark]. The most tempting is the cost factor, approximately ₹360 crore, as compared to the approximately ₹1,500 crore for a conventional metro. A team of metro officials did a study on this system, to operate which power supply can be sourced from electric lines, including those on the side of roads. A blueprint of the viaduct through Menaka has been readied and would be placed before the impending director board meeting of the KMRL,” he said.
