CM puts pod taxi project on fast track

Moving a step closer toward providing the high-tech pod taxi service to residents, the Haryana chief minister on Tuesday directed the officials to complete all the necessary formalities in the next three months and begin work on the project.

Moving a step closer toward providing the high-tech pod taxi service to residents, the Haryana chief minister on Tuesday directed the officials to complete all the necessary formalities in the next three months and begin work on the project.

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In a meeting with Fairwood Holdings, the company responsible for implementing the project, Bhupinder Singh Hooda sought speedy execution of the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system.

The CM said the managing director of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastr-ucture Development Corpor-ation (HSIIDC), Rajiv Arora, would be the nodal officer for the project. He told the UK firm to start work on the first and second phases of the project simultaneously and complete it in two-and-a-half years.

Hooda added that there should a regulatory body for monitoring the project and its security aspects.

Ranbir Saran Das of Fairwood Holdings told the CM that the proposed project would be completed in three phases. The project corridor, with 143 stations en route, would be 105-km long and pass through National Highway-8 and Iffco Chowk.

Das said that assistance of several government agencies would be sought for this purpose, including the MCG, HSIIDC, Huda, national highways authority, public works, power utilities and agriculture departments. He said that the company was also working on a PRT project in Amritsar, Punjab and starting another in Thiruvananthapuram.

The company also provides PRT service in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Fairwood Holdings is an associate company of Ultra Global PRT of England (with 17 years of experience in such services) and this project is a joint venture between the two.