Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said here on Wednesday that the government would apply political pressure to ensure participation of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in execution of the Kochi Metro Rail Project.
Talking to the media after talks with former Managing Director of DMRC E. Sreedharan on the Metro project, the Chief Minister said that he would go to Delhi on November 7 to meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and seek a political decision on the issue. He would be accompanied by Transport Minister Aryadan Mohammed and Managing Director of Kochi Metro Rail Limited Elias George. Mr. Sreedharan too would be in Delhi on November 7 and 8. If necessary, they would meet the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit also.
Mr. Chandy recalled that the issue could not be resolved during his earlier meeting with Ms. Dikshit and Union Minister for Urban Development Kamal Nath in Dehi. It had, however, been decided that officials would work on how to overcome the difficulties of DMRC in taking up the Kochi Metro project. Kerala would put forward proposals to address the problems. Any practical difficulties could be overcome.
He said that Kerala was firm that DMRC should take up the work under leadership of E. Sreedharan as advisor. The government proposed to apply strong pressure on the Centre and the Delhi government for that. The support of Members of the Parliament from the State would also be enlisted to achieve this objective. Kochi Metro was Kerala’s dream project which it wanted to execute efficiently and using modern technology.
