The Union Budget hardly had any surprises in store for the Kochi Metro Rail project. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stuck to the allocation of Rs. 462.17 crore made by his predecessor in the interim budget presented in February.
Of this, Rs. 233.43 crore will be allotted as equity contribution and Rs.66.95 crore as interest-free subordinate debt while another Rs.161.79 crore will be external assistance from the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) routed through the Union government.
The Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) had sought Rs. 878 crore for this fiscal considering the significant fund requirements to meet its various commitments. The Central allocation for the first phase of the project has been pegged at Rs. 1,002 crore.
Minister for Railways Aryadan Muhammed said the shortfall in allocation would not in any way affect the progress of the project. “We will manage through assistance from banks. Besides, we can also approach the Central government for more funds,” he told The Hindu .
E. Sreedharan, the principal advisor of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, toed a similar line asking instead to focus on land acquisition.
“KMRL is hopeful that the Union Government will consider our request and enhance the budget allocation for enabling us to meet our project commissioning targets,” Elias George, the managing director of KMRL, said.
P. Rajeev, MP, said the present budgetary allocation was a significant increase from the last budget when the equity contribution was revised from Rs. 100 to Rs. 120 crore and the subordinate debt stood at Rs. 25 crore.