Kerala has decided to dump the twin monorail projects for Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode citing high costs quoted by Bombardier, the lone bidder after two rounds of tendering.

A meeting of the board of Kerala Monorail Corporation chaired by the Chief Minister here on Thursday took the decision.

Light metro

The board chose to go by a report to this effect submitted by the general consultant of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and its Principal Advisor, E Sreedharan.

The board is now considering the option of the ‘light metro’ (light road transit system). DMRC has now been asked to prepare a detailed project report in four weeks. The project area and alignment will remain the same.

Global tenders will be floated after the detailed project report is made available, according to sources. The light metro is being considered since it is technologically advanced and cheaper when compared to the price quoted in the monorail financial bid.

To ensure timely completion and a cut down on costs, tenders for civil, signalling and rolling stock will be floated separately unlike in the case of the monorail where it was a combined bid.

The ‘light metro’ is a medium-capacity metro system operating on ground and is relatively cost-effective because of shorter vehicles, shorter stations, and shorter ‘dwell times’.

DMRC’s estimate

Earlier in the day, the DMRC report advised the Monorail Corporation to reject the lone tender submitted by a consortium led by Bombardier that had quoted costs which were too high.

A DMRC detailed project report had estimated the total cost for the monorail project in the two cities at ₹5,581 crore. But the financial bid submitted by the Bombardier had quoted ₹10,392 crore.

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