South India’s first inter-state Metro project between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have moved up in pace. The Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) on August 1 floated a tender for the preparation of a feasibility study for the first inter-state metro project in the Southern India.
CMRL has invited a tender for this first of its kind metro network project for the selection of a consultant to prepare a feasibility study report for introducing a mass rapid transit connecting Hosur with Bommasandra near Electronics City. CMRL is likely to open the tender on September 1, 2023.
This feasibility study is going to examine several key factors of the metro project, including the location of stations, type of trains (Normal Metro/Metrolite/Metro Neo), estimated ridership, alignment, and construction costs.
All you need to know about South India’s first inter-state Metro rail
This metro rail is going to connect Karnataka’s IT hub and Tamil Nadu’s industrial hub of Hosur with a metro line spanning 20.5 km, ou of which about 11.5 km of the metro network will be in Karnataka and the rest 8.8 km will be in Tamil Nadu.
According to a statement issued by the Tamil Nadu government, the metro link between Hosur and Bengaluru would encourage further growth and development of the industrial town.
However, many experts have taken a different stance on the issue. They believe that a suburban rail connecting the two hubs would be more viable than a Metro rail, which is primarily designed for intra-city commuting.
While Bengaluru remains one of the megacities in India, Hosur in Tamil Nadu has emerged as a hub for several big conglomerates like TVS, Ashok Leyland and Titan. Tamil Nadu’s Hosur houses as many as 2,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) currently. Furthermore, Hosur is growing as a major hub for electric vehicles (EVs) infrastructure and industries in the state.
The development of floating the tender comes months after CMRL submitted documents to the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) and seeked approval to move forward by conducting a feasibility study for the construction of the proposed rail link.
Last year, the Karnataka government also wrote to MoHUA giving its agreement to the project and highlighted that the metril rail will support a large number of people to travel between Hosur and Bengaluru without much hassle.
After conducting discussions for over six months, the MoHUA finally gave its approval for the feasibility study to be conducted. After nod from MoHUA, CMRL is likely to carry out the study independently, and the subsequent stages of the project will be determined based on the findings of this study.