Monorail project in Shimla goes off track

Subhash Rajta

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 26

Barely a month after the Shimla Municipal Corporation made an announcement to run a monorail to decongest the city roads, the plan stands shelved. According to sources in the Ropeway and Rapid Transport System Development Corporation, the project is not feasible at all. The Municipal Corporation had zeroed in on the ropeway corporation to implement the project, its biggest announcement for this year in the annual budget.

“Running a monorail in Shimla is not feasible. The project has been studied and it’s not viable. There’s hardly any space to lay the tracks. Plus, grade and angles make it even more challenging,” said a ropeway corporation official.

Satya Kaundal, MC Mayor, who seemed quite enthusiastic about the project while making the announcement in her budget speech, too seems to have given up on it. “Ropeway officials say it’s not feasible. So I think it’s as good as over,” she said.

Many in the Municipal Corporation had doubts regarding the viability of the project when it was announced. “The project is unlikely to see the light of the day. It’s not viable,” an official had told The Tribune. It took barely a month for his apprehensions to come true.

Incidentally, it’s not the first time that Shimla residents have been promised a monorail. Three years ago, in 2018, a firm from Switzerland had made a presentation on running a monorail in the city to Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur. Before that, in 2013, the Congress government, too, had toyed with the idea.

The cost of the project was pegged at Rs 5,000 then, and the Delhi Metro was asked to carry out the feasibility study.

Despite two failed attempts at government level, it’s surprising that the MC again brought back the dead and buried project. Hopefully, the authorities concerned would offer a more viable public transport alternative in future.