Centre cites 5 reasons for rejection of Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore and Madurai metro rail plans

Tamil nadu metro project update

In his reply, Sahu stated that the Central Government considers financial support for metro projects in cities or urban agglomerations based on the feasibility of the proposal, as well as the availability of resources, whenever such proposals are submitted by the respective State Governments.

“GoTN submitted Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) for Metro Projects of the Coimbatore and Madurai. The proposals have been examined and returned to Government of Tamil Nadu due to…,” the Union Minister said in a written statement on December 8.

Coimbatore Metro rail project, Metro rail project in Coimbatore

According to Sahu, the proposal for Coimbatore metro rail plan has been returned due to following reasons:

• Low average trip lengths and the existing average speeds on road, the modal shift to metro system is not expected due to negligible time savings.
• In addition to Coimbatore Municipal Corporation (CMC) Area, population of Local Planning Area (LPA), has been taken to be served by Metro system. It is difficult for people living in LPA, which is 5 times bigger than CMC area to use proposed metro system.
• The projected ridership figure of 5.9 lakh per day for proposed network of 34 km of Coimbatore metro is higher as compared to actual ridership figure of 4 lakh per
  day on 55 km operational network of Chennai Metro phase-1, which is serving larger population. Therefore projected ridership figures in DPR are not realistic.
• At several locations it is not feasible to construct station due to non availability of enough Right of Way (RoW).

Metro rail project in Madurai, Madurai Metro rail project

• In the Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) submitted by GoTN, it has been clearly stipulated that the current ridership is justifiable for Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) which is better cost effective system to serve Madurai, the minister said.