The United Democratic Front (UDF) government is cheating the people of the State by dropping the monorail project in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, Elamaram Karim, MLA, has said.
Mr. Karim and A. Pradeep Kumar, MLA, told reporters here on Saturday that the government was consistently taking the State backward in terms of development.
Explanation sought The government had not given a satisfactory explanation as to why the projects were dropped, Mr. Karim said. “The projects had drawn flak from the very beginning. Despite all protests, the government went ahead with the project, estimated to cost Rs.5,500 crore. Now, after spending a huge sum on consultancy, the projects have been dropped. The explanation that it was ‘dropped to upgrade’ is baseless, as the world is yet to see an upgraded version of monorail,” he said.
The real reason for dropping the project was not ‘sole bidding,’ Mr. Pradeep Kumar said.
Use of funds “The government failed to use the Centre’s share in the project as well as to procure loans. It failed right from start. The government is trying to cover up its failure by dropping the project and vouching for light metro,” he said.
The light metro project was not being used anywhere in the country and would incur more costs, he said.
The MLAs blamed the government for not consulting the MPs, legislators, and the local bodies concerned before trying to implement the project. The government could not start many of the projects it proposed to implement due to this. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M] was planning a large-scale agitation in protest against the plan to drop the monorail project, they said.
“Kozhikode badly needs an alternative mode of transport,” Mr. Karim said.
