CHENNAI: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation DMRC ) has developed cheaper light metro rail system for tier ll cities . The metro system will cost 70% less than the ones being built at cities across the country.Union minister of urban development Venkaiah Naidu said that DMRC had submitted a report for light metro projects for tier ll cities. "We will study it and will decide on implementing it. There is a lot of demand for metro rail from tier ll cities because of traffic congestion and concern about pollution. High cost is a problem. A kilometre of underground costs Rs 400 crore and elevated line costs Rs 200 crore."DMRC managing director Mangu Singh said, "The light metro proposal will be ideal for small cities like Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode which are interested to have metro projects. We are ready to offer our consultation for other cities too."Venkaiah Naidu said that the ministry had been wanting to make metro rail viable. "It is clean, green and helps people avoid traffic congestion. I have been asking for relaxing of rules to allow more companies to compete for contracts," he said at a function organised to flag off first metro rail coach for Kochi Metro Rail at Alstom's plant at Sri City near Chennai on Saturday.He also said, "The ministry is encouraging metro rail to augment revenue generation models. Metro corporations should develop small business centres near stations."The union ministry is pushing for public transport as part of Smart City programme. "The development of smart cities hopes to make our cities more liveable by making urban mobility as one of the key areas of improvement," he added.Metro rail projects are underway at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Nagpur and Ahmedabad.He said that the urban development ministry would lay stress on parking pricing, multi modal integration at metro stations, railway stations and bus terminals, bicycle sharing system, bicycle tracks, improvement of bus services, BRTS corridors, intelligent transport system and unified metropolitan transport system to resolve congestion and health of urban population."The delivery of first coach for Kochi was one of the fastest in the country. It is also most indigenised metro coach made here. Around 70% of the components are made in India," he added.Principal advisor of DMRC E Sreedharan said, "The first coach was delivered for Kochi five months ahead of schedule. We want to take the train on viaduct for trials in February. Request advance delivery of the rest of the coaches so that trial run can be conducted on the first stretch."The first coach will reach Kochi in ten days.He also said that delivery of coaches should be done at least two months in advance for Lucknow also so that trials could be started.