A high-level meeting convened by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy here on Monday decided to stick to the Cabinet decision of entrusting the implementation of the Kochi Metro Rail project to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation.
The meeting, held ahead of the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd’s director board meeting here on Friday, also decided to convey the State government’s decision to the Union Ministry of Urban Affairs on handing over the work to the DMRC, besides putting pressure on the Central government to relax certain norms imposed by the Central Vigilance Commission with regard to handing over project works to consultants of the same work. The Chief Minister would personally take up the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Minister for Urban Affairs Kamal Nath, sources said.
According to sources, the decision of the high-level meeting virtually commits the State government representatives on the Kochi Metro Rail board to carry it forward when the board meets on October 19. Despite the decision, there appears to be areas that lack clarity about handing over the job to the DMRC since the meeting was not able to come to a conclusion whether the Supreme Court observations in the 2G case relating to adopting of tender route would have any bearing on the final outcome, sources pointed out. Besides Power and Transport Minister Aryadan Mohammed, the high-level meeting was attended by KMRL Managing Director Elias George and Finance Secretary V.P. Joy.
