Kochi to get Metro Rail soon

New elhi, Sep 5 (UNI) The Planning Commission will send an expert team to Kochi to study the feasibility of a Metro rail project in Kochi in Kerala.

This was conveyed to Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan during his meeting with Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Mr Achuthanandan told mediapersons that he had discussed the issue of giving an early clearance to the Kochi Metro rail project.

He said Mr Ahluwalia assured to send the team within a week or two.

Mr Achuthanandan said the idea was to implement the Kochi Rail Project on Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) model.

He said the state and the Centre would share 15 per cent of the total cost of the project with the remaining 75 per cent being the loan to be taken from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The state government had already gone ahead with land acquisition and formation of Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for implementing the project.

Mr Achuthanandan asked Mr Ahluwalia to get clearance to the project this year itself along with a sanction of a loan from the JBIC.

Kerala Law Minister M Vijayakumar also accompanied the Chief Minister at the discussion with the Planning Commission.

In a memorandum to Mr Ahluwalia, Mr Achuthanandan said Kochi city had witnessed unprecedented growth in the last few years, resulting in heavy congestion in all the roads in the city.

Traffic block extending to hours is a regular feature of the city.

The heavily built up and low lying areas of the city offered little scope for road widening or construction of parallel road systems.

UNI SH PK UCS2016