Four proposals for Colombo’s mega Metro Monorail project
The Ministry of Transport has received four financial proposals for the mega Metro Monorail Project to deal with the ever mounting traffic congestion in Pettah and Colombo Fort area, ministry sources said.
“We got plans from China, India, Korea and Malaysia to start this mega project that will give a new facelift to the Colombo city,” one source told the Business Times. He said they are evaluating these proposals at present in a bid to connect six main bus routes and four main railway lines that facilitate incoming and outgoing passengers from Colombo.
“These financial proposals propose to build a 26.5 kilometre monorail starting from Malabe and running through Battaramulla, Borella, Town Hall, Union Place, World Trade Centre, Pettah, Maradana, Panchikawatte, Armour Street, Modera, Peliyagoda and Kelaniya,” he said. He added that the Metro Monorail Project aims to take some 150,000 people off the roads and travel through a different source. The main bus routes bringing passengers to Colombo are from Moratuwa, Kesbewa, Homagama, Kaduwela, Horana, Gampaha and Negombo. The source said that by establishing the monorail link all these 10 routes can be linked to four main corridors.
He said that there are 450 shops in the area at present and they will be provided shop stalls in the basement of the proposed Metro Monorail Project.
He said that there will be 10 car parks under the project, and an extension to the Fort Railway Station will also be made by preserving the station’s archaeological values. He said that the time taken by passengers to travel between various bus stands to the railway station and vice versa at present will be eliminated upon implementation of the project and it is envisaged to start the project in April or May next year to complete it within 28 months.
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