Patna, Jan. 11: The state urban development department would issue a global notice in a couple of days inviting tenders for conducting a feasibility study, including the technical and economic aspects, for the metro rail project in the state capital.

Shashi Shekhar Sharma, the principal secretary of the urban development department, told The Telegraph: “We will advertise for conducting the techno-economic feasibility study for the proposed urban rail system in the city in a couple of days. The feasibility study would evaluate the viability of both metro and monorail, or their combination in the city. It would give the assessment of the present and the projected traffic footprint, demography, land and power availability in the city with feasible technology to be adopted for the proposed rail system. The selected firm would be given six months to furnish the report.”

According to sources, the feasibility study would include selection of routes, route alignment, topographical survey along the route, approach roads, location of proposed stations, existing railway tracks and trees among other things.

Sharma said: “The bidders would be given certain suggested routes. They would have complete freedom to explore additional/alternative routes for the proposed rail system in the city.”

According to sources, the department would suggest two routes — one from Danapur to Patna City along the banks of the Ganga and the other from Saguna Mor to Frazer Road via Bailey Road. These two routes are expected to cover a distance of 40km.

On submission of the feasibility report, the urban development department would issue expression of interest for the construction of the metro rail project.

According to sources, leading metro infrastructure development firms, including Larsen & Toubro Limited and Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, approached the state urban development department for conducting the feasibility study and executing the construction work of the city metro project.

The Planning Commission gave its consent for providing technical support to the metro rail project in the state capital following meetings with the state government in July and September last year. Chief minister Nitish Kumar also gave green signal to the project in November, 2011.