Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately intervene and facilitate the handing over of the Kochi Metro Rail work to DMRC on a turnkey basis .
In a letter sent to the Prime Minister, with a copy to Union Urban Affairs Development Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday, soon after talks he had with Metroman E Sreedharan here on Wednesday, Chandy pointed out that the State Government is facing a lot of criticism owing to delay in the project.
“The State Government has full trust in the capability of DMRC and E Sreedharan to implement this project and also in their competence to get financial assistance from all possible sources.
The DMRC, too, need not have any doubt about the KMRL since both the organisations are organically linked at the highest level in the KMRL Board”, Chandy said.
The Chief Minister said that that even before the Union Government formally decided to join the venture, the State Government had decided to get the work of Kochi Metro executed through the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on a turnkey
basis. “ The decision was based on the proven track record of Delhi Metro and the availability of E Sreedharan, the man behind Delhi Metro, a competent deliverer of such projects with impeccable personal and professional integrity, in Kerala”,the letter says.
The decision of the State Government was widely publicised and was also known to the DMRC, but it has been informed now that the KMRL Board has deferred the decision to hand over Kochi Metro work to DMRC so as to ascertain the willingness of the latter.
It happened so when all the five state government nominees on the KMRL Board strongly supported entrusting the work to DMRC.
“The deferment has caused concern to us since there was no indication in the past about DMRC being unwilling to take up this project. On the contrary, we had a number of communications from the DMRC indicating such willingness. Such deferment, at this stage, will only delay the project and is also likely to cause cost escalation”, Chandy said.
He urged the Prime Minister to direct all concerned to take immediate action to facilitate the handing over of the project to DMRC.
”Both KMRL and DMRC can sit together and finalise the terms of the turnkey contract”, concluded Chandy.