Title - Monorail Kozhikode’s card at Emerging Kerala

Kozhikode -The proposed Kozhikode monorail project has been put up for attracting investors at the upcoming ‘Emerging Kerala 2012,’ a biennial global business meeting, scheduled to be held at the Le Meridien convention centre, Kochi, from September 12 to 14.

This apart, a project for setting up a plant to process 200 tonnes of solid waste per day for Kozhikode city, will also be showcased at the three-day meet to be attended by dignitaries from various countries, including China, Japan, Canada, United Kingdom, and Malaysia.

The monorail project, envisaged by the Kerala Road Fund Board, has two components — the development of monorail for 12.60 km from Government Medical College Hospital to Meenchantha and the operation of exclusive buses to the Calicut International Airport. The estimated cost is Rs.1,018 crore.

Officials said a detailed feasibility study for a mass rapid transit system was done through Wilbur Smith Associates. It was found that the length of four-lane divided carriageway in the city was only 10 km. Many of the major traffic corridors in the city had a journey speed lower than 20 km per hour. About 1.6 lakh vehicles, of which 85 per cent were passenger vehicles and 14 per cent commercial, enter and exit through the major corridors of the city. The daily travel demand was observed as 15.4 lakh trips and the per capita trip rate for all modes together was 1.14. The average trip length was about 7.1 km, out of which public transport trips had a maximum trip length of 10.4 km.

Based on the survey, a monorail corridor had been envisaged from the medical college hospital to Ramanattukara (23 km) in two phases and a dedicated bus service. In the first phase, it would be from the medical college to Meenchantha and in the second phase, from Meenchantha to Ramanattuakara.

The new transit system would provide direct access to major spots in the city such as the railway station, mofussil bus station, and the KSRTC bus station. The daily ridership on the corridor was 1,43,200 which was the maximum when compared to other alignments as the corridor passed through the main transportation and commercial centres of the city.

The government has come up with two models — a special purpose vehicle and public-private-partnership (PPP) model — for implementing the project.

Officials said a sum of Rs.200 crore had been estimated for the project for a solid-waste management plant for the city.

The project components include the establishment of a solid-waste management plant and an electricity generation unit at the existing 20-acre yard at Njeliyanparamba.