Haryana not to pay for Gurgaon pod car project

The Haryana government will not pay for the construction of the pod taxi project in Gurgaon. The Central government last week had officially approved the country’s first ‘pod taxi’ project, also known as Metrino in Gurgaon. “The state government will not be paying anything as the part of the construction cost of this project,” said Haryana Public Works (Building and Roads) Minister Rao Narbir Singh on Friday morning.

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), the proposed taxi service which will connect Sirhaul and Rajiv Chowk in Gurgaon, will soon be a ‘dream come true’ moment for the Millennium City. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) presented a feasibility report of the project and invited expressions of interest (EoI) from international agencies, including the favourite Metrino of Poland, to start work.

According to the proposed plan, the pod car project in Gurgaon will be a 26 km project and will cost about Rs 900 crores, running from Delhi-Gurgaon border to Sohna Road in Gurgaon, covering parts of old Gurgaon as well. The project envisages small, fully automatic, driverless pods moving on a suspended network 5-10m above ground.

“If this project proves successful, then people will be able to travel in air on circular roads and will cover large distances in comparatively less time. It will help in bringing down the number of accidents on roads considerably thereby reducing the pollution levels as well” said Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. A pod car is a four or six seater, battery powered, driverless vehicle which runs on an elevated, laser-guided track. It can be used as a feeder between two larger modes of transport. According to officials in the NHAI — that has already laid the groundwork for an eight-mile PRT network of driverless pod cars — Haryana government has been in talks with a UK-based firm and is seeking global bids from private companies to finance and complete the project.

According to the plan, the project will have 16 stations, starting near Ambience Mall. The proposed route includes Ambience Mall, Udyog Vihar, Sector 45, IIFCO Chowk, Signature Tower, Sector 31, Jharsa Road, Rajiv Chowk, Devi Lal Stadium, Sector 38, Subhash Chowk, Sector 47 and Sector 50 – where a docking station would be constructed.

Sources have said that around 29 acres of land is available with NHAI and Haryana Government on which the cable car will come up and the fares would be at par with Delhi-Gurgaon metro. According to the terms and conditions of the PRT, the company will recover its investment in 25 years through tickets.