Thiruvananthapuram: The board of Kerala Rapid Transit Corporation Ltd (KRTL) chair-ed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has decided to rope in Urb-an Mass Transit Comp-any Ltd (UMTCL), a leading urban transport consultancy firm under the Minister of Housing & Urban Affa-irs, to carry out the feasibility study to divert light metro via Techn-opark. RITES – the PSU under Indian Railways and NATPAC were the other two agencies who had placed proposals to carry out the feasibility study.
An official said that a negotiation meeting would be held with UMTCL soon to finalise the proposal.
“UMTCL is a leading firm in the country and has immense experience in the transportation sector. Linking Technopark with the light metro is very crucial for the success of the project. Ridership is the key for any public transportation and we want to ensure that the light metro has enough ridership,” said the official.
As per the current alignment, from Kazha-kootam Junction the li-ght metro turns towar-ds Kariyavattom towar-ds Pangapara and Sree-karyam. The plan is to conduct the feasibility study in the 4.5 km str-etch from Karyavattom towards Technopark.
It is learnt that the estimated cost of the projects has gone up following the revisions made in the detailed pr-oject report. The light metro projects at Koz-hikode and Thiruvan-anthapuram is estimated to cost around `4000 crore.
According to officials, the new diversion plan would escalate the cost slightly as the distance may increase. The state and centre would chip in 20 percent each for executing the project while 60 percent of the funds would be raised through loans.
