After months of intense wrangling, the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) have signed on the dotted line. The two entered into a contractual agreement at New Delhi on Thursday, fixing four years as the time frame for completing Kochi Metro.
The work is scheduled to be flagged off on June 7 and the agreement comes just a fortnight ahead of it.
Earlier, DMRC’s Principal Advisor E. Sreedharan had said the metro rail work could be wrapped up in three years, and when asked about it, KMRL’s MD Elias George said the agencies would try to complete the project in a “shorter span”.
The agreement says that DMRC will get the work done while KMRL will “exercise appropriate financial and technical oversight over the project’s execution”. DMRC must also seek KMRL’s nod before deviating from the technical specifications and norms agreed upon.
Mr. George said the agreement took care of Kerala’s interests. It also ensured that there were no impediments to DMRC’s functioning either, he said.
