KTR meets Puri, seeks funds for PRTS project Demands Centre pay `8,684.54 cr for sewage project
● THE PERSONAL Rapid Transit System (PRTS) offers passengers last-mile connectivity. It uses cable cars or pod cars for transporting small groups of four to eight passengers from one location to another.
● ONLY FOUR countries offer this service, including London's Heathrow airport where the PRTS is nearly four kilometres long.
● IN HYDERABAD, the PRTS will connect the Assembly and Paradise Metro Rail stations via the Khairatabad Metro Rail station and MMTS at James Street station.
Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday submitted a proposal to the Centre for setting up an innovative 10-km long Personal Rapid Transit System (PRTS) from the State Assembly to the Paradise Metro Rail station, connecting Metro Rail and MMTS stations in the city.
Rama Rao, who submitted the proposal to Hardeep Singh Puri, Union minister for housing and urban affairs, in New Delhi, sought financial support from the Centre to undertake the project and provide the state government standards, specifications, and the legal and regulatory framework necessary to execute the project.
The PRTS is a mode of public transit that provides passengers with last-mile connectivity. The transit system uses cable cars or pod cars for transporting small groups of four to eight passengers from one location to another. Only four countries offer this service, including London’s Heathrow airport where the PRTS is nearly four kilometres long.
Automated cars are driven over a network of custom-built corridors under this system. After boarding a pod car, passengers have to press the destination station button on the dedicated corridor and the system transports the pod car to the station automatically.
Rama Rao informed Puri that as Hyderabad has a Metro Rail network covering 69 km and MMTS covering another 46 km, the Telangana government was eager to
implement the PRTS to meet future demand as Hyderabad is a growing metropolis due to the rise in population and employment prospects.
“The proposed PRTS corridor for a length of 10-km traverses from Legislative Assembly to Paradise Metro station connecting a Metro Rail station and an MMTS station. The proposed corridor integrates with various
transport systems like Metro Rail at Assembly, Paradise station, Khairatabad station and MMTS at James Street station,” Rama Rao stated in his representation. He also submitted an alignment map to the union minister.
He said that the detailed project report and feasibility study for the PRTS route were prepared by Indian Port Rail and
Ropeway Corporation Ltd (IPRRCL), which was the consulting firm
“It is understood that a high-powered committee has been formulated under MORTH to recommend standards, specifications for the PRT system in the country. As Telangana government is keen to take up this project, I request you to kindly use your good offices to provide them at the earliest,” Rao noted.
In another representation, Rama Rao demanded that the Centre pay `8,684.54 crore, or onethird of the cost, for the execution of a large-scale sewage project in Hyderabad and surrounding areas up to the outer ring road. He urged the Center to contribute `2,850 crore under AMRUT-2, with the state government covering the remaining costs.