Patna to have North India’s First Monorail Service

Bihar Government is planning to start Monorail Service in Patna as an alternative to Metro Trains. Monorails are cheaper to construct and require less space.   Bihar Government  has started drafting a proposal for Monorail Service and tenders would soon be floated.

Bihar Urban Development Department  has asked the Railway Infrastructure Technical and Economic Service to submit report of the survey conducted to assess the viability of the project last year.

Bihar minister for Urban Development Prem Kumar said a decision to invite tenders to prepare a DPR of the project would be taken after studying the survey reports, prepared by RITES (railway infrastructure technical and economic service).

Monorail is an urban transport system where elevated tracks are raised to run small trains to ferry commuters from one part of the city to another. Construction cost of this mode of transportation is less than metro rail, as it runs on a single line and consumes less space.

The proposal to run a monorail in Patna was mooted during Lalu Prasad’s tenure as railway minister as the latter was impressed by the urban transport system during his visits to various countries.

Meanwhile, officials in the East Central Railway maintained, that the project could take off only when the state government takes necessary decisions to acquire land – a key point to raise elevated tracks.

Among others,  Mumbai has completed the Construction of its First Phase of Monorail Service and the daily service would start in December 2012. Additionally Bangalore and Trivandrum are also planning to setup a Monorail Service.

A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guideway. The term is also used variously to describe the beam of the system, or the vehicles traveling on such a beam or track. The term originates from joining the wordsmono (one) and rail (rail), from as early as 1897  possibly from German engineer Eugen Langen who called an elevated railway system with wagons suspended the Eugen Langen One-railed Suspension Tramway (Einschienige Hängebahn System Eugen Langen).