#EarthDay: Living In Gurgaon? Get Ready For A High-Flying Life With Metrino

To someone who is new to Delhi-NCR, the site of passengers jostling to board a Metro train, especially during peak hours, is both awestriking and horrifying. It may give you an even more perplexed feeling if the Metro station in question is one in Gurgaon, part of the national capital region (NCR). While that is the situation in the sophisticated high-speed Metro network that the national capital boasts, things on ground are even worse. During peak hours, driving your vehicle through the traffic snarls between Delhi and Gurgaon may leave you more tired than your office work.

If you travel for work between the two cities and have been in such a situation, you surely would have prayed you could just fly to avoid the traffic rush. Your prayers have been answered by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which decided to roll out the country's first personal rapid transit (PRT) network. Called Metrino, the project will be a 12.3-kilometre stretch of 16 stations across the Delhi-Gurgaon border and Badshahpur Mod at Sohna Road. NHAI has already invited bids for the project, which is expected to be built at an estimated cost of Rs 850 crore.

Metrino will have podcars suspended on an overhead rail 5-10 metres above the ground. The rail has been under construction for a while and may get completed in a year of the contract being awarded. At an average speed of 60 kmph, one automatically operated pod – it does not require a driver – will have the capacity to carry five passengers at a time. To reach a docking station, you pod car will take only a minute and you will also have the option of hiring a private pod car if you are in a hurry and don't want to stop at the scheduled docks. While a journey by Metrino is likely to cost an amount similar to a Metro journey, the podcar project is likely to cost the government less than the Metro network.

The project, an eco-friendly transportation system that will decongest the roads, will change the lives of people in the national capital region in multiple ways. PropGuide takes a look at the most important of those:

• Break from the rush: It will be a happy break for commuters form the maddening rush on roads and Metro trains. The Metrino system will also move a substantial amount of traffic from roads and the Metro, especially passengers travelling short distances.

• Time and cost for commuter: For passengers travelling short distances, the Metro costs and the time a road travel takes are quite testing. The Metrino will solve both problems.

• Cost for govt: Projects like these are ideal for densely populated areas and light on the government's pocket. According to NHAI, building a kilometre of the Metro costs at least Rs 250 crore and Monorail Rs 200 crore, the Metrino system can be built for just Rs 70 crore.

• Clean energy: Touted as a game changer in urban transport space, the Metrino network could be run using renewable energy. This will not only help the national capital region save energy but also cut down its carbon footprint.