Chennai: Two prestigious world-class projects mooted by the AIADMK government during its previous rule, continue to be a non-starter.
For the last four years, the state government has been finding it difficult to identify a consultant to establish a world-class oceanarium at Mamallapuram and also carry forward the monorail project aimed at decongesting Chennai’s peripheral areas.
For these projects, the idea was mooted in 2011. Subsequently tender process, high level meetings and department reviews were conducted every year and end result is that both projects remain on paper. Another policy of the State was to decongest Chennai by establishing multi-level parking lots through the city corporation. The only respite was the first public private partnership parking facility at Thousand lights early this year.
“Despite several rounds of bidding, the Chennai Monorail is still grounded and there are hiccups and practical difficulties in the project”, said a senior officer without going into the status of the 111-km project.
According to secretariat sources, though the projects have been delayed there are possibilities of them taking off as the AIADMK-led government is keen on implementing them. Firms from Malaysia, China, Spain and Mumbai took part in the mono rail bidding, but due to technical glitches the project is on slow pace but not shelved, sources said. “We have floated a fresh tender last week and we are confident about getting an agency to execute the world class projects which will bring marine mammals at close quarters boosting tourism”, said a fisheries department official.
