DMRC made consultants for Kochi Metro project

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will be appointed general consultants for the Rs5,200-crore Kochi Metro Rail project. This was decided at a meeting between state chief minister Oommen Chandy and former DMRC managing director E Sreedharan today.

Sreedharan, who was in Thiruvananthapuram to attend a meeting of the Kerala State Planning Board, had agreed to be associated with the Kochi Metro Rail project on condition that DMRC is made consultants for the project.

The state government will send a formal communication to the DMRC giving it an update on the project and the nature of its involvement, the chief minister said.

Sreedharan had argued that the fledgling Kochi Metro Rail Ltd (KMRL) may not have the technical competence to take up such a massive project and that it would be better that the role be assigned to DMRC, which has enough experience in the field.

DMRC also enjoyed the confidence of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the lending agency that would make available loans to the project 'on easy terms.'

DMRC as the general consultants would now float a global tender to ensure total transparency in the procedures for selecting consultants, as demanded by JICA.