DMRC named Thiruvananthapuram & Kozhikode Light Metro Consultant

DMRC named Thiruvananthapuram & Kozhikode Light Metro Consultant

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government on Tuesday named Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) as the consultant for the Light Metro project for Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. The letter sent to the Union government by PWD secretary Mohammed Hanish on Tuesday included the details regarding consultancy as well.

Though the state cabinet gave administrative sanction to the detailed project report prepared by DMRC on September 9, the role of DMRC was not mentioned. While announcing the decision, chief minister Oommen Chandy said the government would convey the Centre about the administrative sanction and added that the project would be modelled on Kochi Metro. But Chandy hadn’t clarified the role of DMRC.

Later, KPCC president V M Sudheeran wrote a letter to Chandy asking to clear the air regarding the project. The KPCC executive meeting held here earlier this month also demanded execution of Light Metro project under the supervision of DMRC principal adviser E Sreedharan. CPM also issued a statement seeking the involvement of DMRC and Sreedharan in the project. But senior officials, including chief secretary Jiji Thomson, were against awarding consultancy to DMRC arbitrarily as they believed that awarding consultancy on a nomination basis was a violation of CVC guidelines.

Sources in the government said the CM finally decided to pay heed to the suggestion as he didn’t want to trigger controversies ahead of local body elections.

The government has sought in-principle clearance from the Centre for the project and sharing of cost. The state has mooted a proposal to avail 60% of the project cost as loan and sharing of the rest equally between state and Centre