It arose from a Madurai Metrolite system, part of a major expansion of public transport in the city and one of the projects devised by the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J.Jayalalithaa.
[2][3][4] As the monorail market is estimated to be ₹72,000 crore (US$10 billion) in India, the then Governor of Tamil Nadu, Banwarilal Purohit announced in Legislative assembly that the Government of Tamil Nadu had decided to do a feasibility study for introducing monorail system in Madurai[5][6][7][8] along with Salem, Thiruchirappalli,[9][10][11] and Tirunelveli.
In 2020, the government has earmarked a sum of about ₹60,000 crore (US$8.4 billion) for metro and monorail projects in Tamil Nadu.
[12] At that time SASTRA, using Geographical Information System (GIS) tools, had worked out a proposal for a suburban railway route for Madurai City.
[15][16] CMRL releases tender notice for preparing the project's feasibility report in March, 2022 and BARSYL bags the tender to prepare feasibility study with the deadline of May, 2022[17][18] Proposed Metro Rail Routes in Madurai at Phase-1 stage[23] Proposed Metro Rail Routes in Madurai at Phase-II stage[24][25]