Hyderabad: Personal rapid transit system mooted from Assembly to Paradise Metro station

Hyderabad: The State government has come up with a proposal to set up an innovative personal rapid transit system (PRTS) from the Assembly to Paradise Metro station.

Municipal Administration and Urban Development minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday met Union Minister of Housing and Urban Development Hardeep Singh Puri in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum to him seeking Central assistance to take up the PRTS project. The PRTS envisages use of cable cars or pod cars for transporting small group of passengers from one place to another. They will carry four to eight persons. Currently, the PRTS facility is operational at Heathrow Airport, London, and two other places.

The government is proposing PRTS to cover 10 km. The corridor will integrate with different transport systems, like Metro Rail, at the Assembly, Paradise and Khairtabad and MMTS at the James Street and Khairtabad. Indian Port Rail and Railway Corporation Ltd is consultant for preparation of feasibility study and detailed project report for the above corridor. KTR urged the minister to provide standards, specifications and legal and other regulatory framework and help the government to proceed further in developing the project.

A special committee has already been constituted under Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to formulate and recommend standards and specifications for PRTS in the country.

Under PRTS, automated vehicles are operated on a network of specially built corridors. The capacity of pod cars is 4-8 passengers only. After boarding a pod car, passengers have to press the destination station button on the dedicated corridor. The system transports the pod car to the station automatically. Rao also appealed to the minister to consider extending financial support of Rs 2,850 crore (one-third cost) under AMRUT for the phase one of STP project taken up at the cost of Rs 8,648.54 crore in Hyderabad.