What is MetroNeo Transport System ?

👉While presenting the Union Budget 2021-22, Finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the metro rail network of 702 km is already operational across the country and another 1016 km of the metro rail network is under construction in 27 cities.

👉"Two new technologies, MetroLite and MetroNeo will be deployed to provide metro rail systems at much lesser cost with same experience, convenience and safety in tier 2 cities and peripheral areas of tier 1 cities" Sitharaman said.

👉By making a sizeable budgetary allocation for MetroNeo in the Union Budget, the central government has paved the way for the innovative system of mass transport, which could soon be replicated across the country.

👉To be adopted for the first time in the country in Maharashtra's Nashik, MetroNeo is a comfortable, rapid, energy efficient and less noisy transport medium.

👉The central government recently urged all state governments to consider using metroNeo technology in their tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

👉The MetroNeo service consists of electric bus coaches their lengths varying from 18 to 25 metres with a carrying capacity of 200 to 300 passengers at a time.

👉The buses will have rubber tyres and draw power from an overhead electric wire with 600-750 V DC supply, similar to railways or trains.

👉The buses will be air conditioned, with automatic door closing system, level boarding, comfortable seats, passenger announcement system, and an information system with electronic display. 

👉A Feeder bus of 12 metre length will be battery powered and run on the existing road on the two feeder routes. The feeder bus batteries will get charged while operating on the main corridors that will enable seamless travel with a wider coverage. No separate charging facility will be required.

👉The capacity of main corridors will be 1000 PHPDT. The system has been designed in such a way that there will be a train service after every two minutes.The total cost of the project is estimated to be Rs 2100.6 crore.