The New Town authorities are exploring the most environment-friendly mode of public transport for a 7.5km stretch that will not be connected by the New Garia-Airport Metro, a Hidco official said on Monday.
The Metro network will not cover the 7.5km stretch between the Biswa Bangla gate and the last point of Action Area III to the east of Sukhobrishti.
The residential area on this stretch has been growing by the day. In a few more years, the area will be teeming with people. Plots of IT companies such as Wipro and Infosys, multiple educational institutions and mini townships like Sukhobrishti, which has 10,000 homes, are part of this area.
Depending on buses, autos and e-rickshaws to transport the large number of people living in the area or going there for work will make snarls an everyday affair, according to the township authorities.
It will be a repeat of what Calcutta goes through and the authorities do not want that to happen in a new and upcoming township, the Hidco official said. Neither do they want people to use their cars as a more comfortable transport option while avoiding overcrowded buses.
“If we allow autos and totos to mushroom to cover this 7.5km distance, it will lead to traffic congestion when more people start living and working here. More buses, too, will eat up the available road space,” Debashis Sen, the chairman and managing director of Hidco, said.
“So, we are looking for a mode of transport that will carry a large number of people without reducing the available road space and will be environment-friendly, too. It can be monorail, or other kinds of light rail, ropeways or even pods.”
In India, Gurgaon has such a light rail network to connect places that are not connected by the Delhi Metro network. “The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation runs the Metro till the border of Delhi and Gurgaon. There is something called Rapid Metro, rakes with two coaches that take people from the border to the interiors of Gurgaon,” Alekhya Datta, a fellow with The Energy and Resources Institute, said.
Hidco had considered introducing monorail in this part of the township about three years ago. But KPMG, which was the consultant then, had told the authorities that the returns from monorail would be inadequate for an investor to run the services. Also, the initial investment will be huge, the agency had said.
Hidco has invited bids to select a consultant. The consultant will be asked to keep in mind the economic viability of the mode of transport they suggest, Sen said. “It must yield returns for the investor. Only then an investor will be interested.”