Export Development Canada (EDC), Canada’s export credit agency, has offered 500 million US dollars for the Rs.5,581-crore elevated Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
The EDC’s offer to part finance the project has been conveyed to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), general consultant for the project, by the Bombardier Transportation Holdings USA Inc, the consortium that has submitted the technical and commercial bid for the monorail in the two cities.
DMRC sources told The Hindu that the Bombardier Inc had informed the DMRC that the EDC was ready for part financing the project if the State government was a guarantor for the 36.4-km project in the two cities.
The letter says that it will be an “amortizing term loan to finance the borrower’s purchase of goods and services.”
Wholly owned by the Government of Canada, the EDC supports Canadian direct investment abroad and investment in Canada. To build on EDC’s strong trade momentum in the country, it has already invested in four Indian fund managers.
Meanwhile, the DMRC has sought 21 days for evaluating the technical bid submitted by the consortium for the exclusive developer-contractor. A 12-member team of the DMRC is closely evaluating the technical bid as there is only a single bid.
Bombardier Transportation India Ltd and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group are the partners of the consortium in which Bombardier Transportation Holdings USA Inc is the lead partner.
Commercial bidPrincipal Advisor to the DMRC E. Sreedharan has asked it to open the commercial bid only after Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd, the special purpose vehicle for the project, gives the nod for the technical bid.
The commercial bid would be crucial as the variation between it and the estimate prepared by DMRC should not be above 10 per cent, sources said.
