After bagging contract for the country's first monorail in Mumbai, construction major L&T is now eyeing a similar project in Gujarat.A monorail is a rail-based transportation system based on a single rail, which acts as its sole support and its guide way.
The company is learnt to have evinced interest in such a project, a memorandum of understanding for which is likely to be signed at the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat 2011 Summit, state government sources said.
"At a time when the state government has been enforcing on development of various transports, L&T has expressed interest in a Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) monorail project in Gujarat.
"The company will be signing an MoU for the same during Vibrant Gujarat," said sources.
On its part, after tasting success with the Bus Rapid Transport System Ahmedabad, the Gujarat government has been working on a wholly-elevated metro rail project between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar at an estimated cost of Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion).
The state government has also set up a Rs 200-crore (Rs 2-billion)
company for the execution of the project called Metro Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad, apart from roping in Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to prepare a detailed project report for the metro rail project.
With an average 50,000 people commuting between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar daily already, the metro rail project is expected to ease rising congestion on the route in the near future.
It is also needs to be mentioned here that the a project import status to 'Monorail projects for urban transport' at a concessional basic duty of 5 per cent had been proposed during the Union Budget 2010-11.
Meanwhile, L&T alongwith Scomi Rail of Malaysia is likely to finish first portion of first line of the Mumbai Monorail, contracted by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
