Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL), the special purpose vehicle created for implementing the metro rail project in Chennai, is likely to take up the feasibility study for a metro rail project in Coimbatore.

Sources said it was decided at a high-level meeting in Chennai a few days ago that the State government would ask the CMRL to conduct the study and prepare a detailed project report.

The feasibility study would take about three months and the detailed project report about nine months.

The move follows Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s announcement in the Assembly that the Coimbatore city would get metro rail.

Preliminary discussions centred around having metro rail along arterial roads and studying various stretches for about 120 km, the sources said.

The arterial roads could be Avinashi Road, Trichy Road and Mettupalayam Road.

Discussions were also held about whether metro should cover the entire stretch or combining it with mono rail or bus rapid transit system.

The sources, however, pointed out that things were in a very preliminary stage. Only after completing the feasibility study and preparing the detailed project report would a clear picture emerge about the route, cost, pattern of funding and establishment of a special purpose vehicle.

Citing Kochi as an example, many politicians and activists have been saying that the city missed the bus when the Centre announced the scheme more than seven years ago.

The issue cropped up again when Kochi opened its first stretch recently.