Light rail services in Chennai to help the commuters
Posted on: 27/Sep/2019 10:06:52 AM
Chennai trains are crowded with lots of people and commuters find it difficult to go to their places of destination. It is now revealed that Chennai might have light rail service connecting Tambaram and Velachery. It is said that by the light rail service the commuters would have easy mobility along the route.
The feasibility study would be conducted by the state and this study would recommend possible alignments to connect Tambaram and Velachery. The estimated cost of the project and other details would be worked out soon.
A senior official expressed his thoughts about the light rail services and said once the feasibility study gets over then DPR would be readied to go ahead with the project. He hinted that the light rail system might either be elevated or constructed at grade (similar to the railway line). Information is there is a possibility that the stretch might be linked to Velachery MRTS also.
It is important to mention that light rail services are in operation in many places such as Singapore, Sydney, Ottawa, and San Francisco, etc. The light rail services would have lower passenger capacity when compared to the metro trains. It has been pointed out that the light rail services are now in the initial stage and finalization of routes and other finer details would be done only after the completion of the feasibility study.
Some advantages of light rail services are it is not as cost-intensive like metro and it requires less land to be constructed. The light rail services could cover those areas that would not be possible to link by metro. An official later spoke about how constructing 1 km of an elevated and underground stretch of the metro could cost Rs 200 crores to Rs 250 crores and Rs 400 crores to Rs 450 crores. The point here is it would cost Rs 80 to Rs 100 crores for the light rail. It is superb to mention that light rail services could be taken into narrow lanes and denser roads, unlike metro trains. Sharper curves would not be possible with the metro in this stretch whereas in light rails services it is possible.
It was mentioned by an official that metro would not be able to take sharp turns but light rail services could take that. He added that the radius of curvature for a metro might be about 100m but the radius of curvature for light rail might be about 25m to 30m.
