Chennai monorail bid to begin this month

NEW DELHI: India’s southern state, Tamil Nadu, is set to float the technical and financial bid this month, the final request for the proposal for the 57km first phase of Chennai's monorail project.

The first phase is estimated to cost Rs8,500 crore (RM4.75 billion).

"The duration of tendering will be 60 days after which the negotiations will begin with the top bidder. Construction work is likely to begin in June," Times of India reported quoting a government source.

This comes after months of dilly-dallying over the qualification of the prospective bidders for the project that was announced in 2011.

The plan is to bring five prospective bidders, including Malaysia’s Scomi International, Gammon India and Larson and Toubro, on board.

They were selected from eight consortiums that participated in the qualification bidding last year, the English daily reported.

The stations have been identified for the project, keeping in mind their access to terminals of other modes of transport, including bus-stops, Mass Rapid Transit System and metro rail stations.

Unlike in the metro rail project, the requirement of private land for monorail is minimal. The government has formed a team to identify land for construction of the stations, said the report.

The initial plan was to cover 111km of the city's periphery in the first phase, the state government later dropped the plan of including the Vandalur-Puzhal (54km) corridor.

This would have been the longest monorail corridor in the world had it been implemented along with the Vandalur-Velachery, Poonamallee-Kathipara and Poonamallee-Vadapalani sections.

"The state will consider this later," said the sources.-- Bernama