The Cabinet decided to reconstitute the director board of Kochi Metro Rail Limited and remove Tom Jose as it Managing Director.
Principal Secretary (Power) Elias George will be posted as the new Managing Director, an official release said.
The Board will have the Chief Secretary K. Jayakumar, Principal Secretary (Finance) V. P. Joy and Principal Secretary (Water Resources) V. J. Kurian as members. Though the government can nominate up to five persons, the Cabinet has not named the fifth nominee. The others are nominees of the Central government.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media that the decisions would be taken soon on land acquisition and funding of the project. He had already talked to persons whose lands were to be acquired for the project. Their concerns had been heard and they had been assured that acquisition would be done in such a manner that they would not suffer any losses.
There has been differences in the Cabinet over tendering of the project. However, the view that the project should be entrusted to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation without inviting global tender had prevailed.
