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Firms are being finalised to undertake the project, which includes erecting an elevated platform that will support the track for 4-6 seater pods, running to transport passengers to the Golden Temple from the city’s prime locations.
The Rs 250-crore project was envisaged last year, in the wake of the congestion around the Golden Temple. Various committees were formed and finally the Pod system was considered most conducive. The battery-powered driverless pods, which uses rubber wheels to run on an elevated track, is a kind of a “personal taxi”.
Amritsar will be first in the country to get such a transport system within three years time, said Municipal Corporation Commissioner D P S Khabanda. He added that challenges like minor diversions in the route and constructions of pillars in some areas have been finalised. “We have called tenders globally and will select the companies to start construction at the earliest,” said Khabanda.
While the state and Centre will assist the project, the new system — first proposed by the Union Urban Development Ministry — will work in the public-private partnership mode.
Khabanda added that the pod system will work in tandem with the rest of the city’s transport system. In the first phase, the PRT system will connect bus stands, the railway station and the Golden Temple. “One way, it is roughly a 4-km area and will have seven stations on the way. In all, there will be a track of 8 km and 300 pods or vehicles will keep plying on it round-the-clock, enough to ferry over one lakh passengers daily,” he said.
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