Chennai:
It was the year when Chennai, which was chanting the mantra of metro rail, turned to monorail with the change of power equations in the state.
As debate raged over what could be the better option for the city, the expansion of metro rail came to a standstill and monorail became a preferred solution with many terming metro rail project a cost intensive project that would take considerable time for completion.
The other argument put forth by AIADMK government was that with Chennai coming under seismic zone III, the security of the passengers who travel through metro rail would be in danger as the passage for the rail would be underground.
As the borers arrived earlier this month to drill the underground stretch of metro rail, which has been shrouded by protests with residents fearing it will affect their buildings, the state government formulated a plan for first phase of monorail. A crisscrossing network of four monorail corridors with a length of 111 km was planned. Interestingly, this will be largest as well as many endless monorail network in a world and dwarf all monorail networks in the world. It is believed it will also have a longest network of 54-km link between Vandalur and Puzhal.
The corridors were identified by Pallavan Transport Consultancy Services Ltd and bids have been invited to build a monorail network along the four corridors – Vandalur to Puzhal via Avadi; Vandalur to Velachery via Tambaram East (23 km); Poonamallee to Kathipara via Porur (18 km); and Poonamallee to Vadapalani via Valasarawakkam (16 km).
Meanwhile, Metro Rail which was chugging smoothly during the DMK regime with plans to have eight more corridors was facing huge pressure over land acquisition, conservation of heritage structures and continous traffic jams, which have become part and parcel of Chennaites.
The land acquisition near airport, parks of Chennai corporation, Koyambedu market and Pachaiappas College was not that smooth for Metro Rail, which also has to face protest from the greens, land owners besides court room dramas. Although, all the land was nearly acquired for the project but a blow came in changing the alignment after the greens and students protested against the metro station in Pachaiappas College.
While the metro rail is expected to chug in the elevated structure next year, the day is not far when Chennaites can prefer either metro rail or mono rail besides the bus and thank their political masters for offering numerous choices as public transport.
Monorail:
Monorail is a transport system that runs on single rail.
Monorail can go in congested short streets
Monorail can be built faster with less cost. It consumes minimal space.
Monorail can carry upto 700 people at a time as it is four car train
Monorail can go at 85 km per hour
Chennai‘s 111-km-long Phase-I of monorail will dwarf all alternative monorail networks in a world.
There have been fewer than 20 monorail systems in Asia, of that 10 have been in Japan.
The longest operational monorail line in a universe is a 23.8-km mezzanine in Osaka.
Metro Rail:
Metro rail runs on two parallel rails just as traditional rails.
Metro Rail cannot go in busy, overcrowded street.
Metro rail metro rail project a cost intensive project and takes time to complete it
Metro Rail can carry thousands of people and can accommodate nine cars
Metro Rail can travel at higher speed
Chennai lies in Seismic Zone III and passengers who travel through metro rail would be in danger as the passage for the rail would be underground.
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