KOCHI: The tender for the construction contract of the Kochi light metro railway project will be floated soon, chairman and managing director of Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) E. Sreedharan said.

Mr. Sreedharan was speaking at a discussion on the project organised by the Kerala Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Kochi on Sunday.

The DMRC was in the process of preparing the details of the contract. The State Government had earlier appointed the DMRC as the consultant for the Kochi project. Mr. Sreedharan suggested that a full-time and dedicated officer should be appointed as the officer on special duty for the project. He should be accountable for the timely completion of the project, he suggested. Mr. Sreedharan said he had brought the matter to the notice of the State Chief Minister. The Government is understood to have short-listed a few persons for the post and the announcement is expected shortly, he said.

Normally, Metro railway projects are partly funded through development of property on surplus Government lands. But, no Government land is available in Kochi for commercial exploitation. In case of Kochi, additional floor-area ratio should be permitted and it should be marketed by the Kochi Corporation. By sanctioning additional floor-area ratio, revenue to the tune of Rs.600 crore could be realised. Of this amount, Rs.125 crore could be earmarked for the proposed metro, he said.

Mr. Sreedharan said he had suggested to the Chief Minister that Kochi should be made the Manhattan of Kerala. For Kochi, BOT model has been recommended and the Government of India was in favour of public-private participation model. By private participation, efficiency would be enhanced, he said.

Explaining the experiences of the Delhi metro railway project, Mr. Sreedharan said the pollution level in Delhi was reduced to 30 per cent and accident rates by 60 per cent when the first phase of the 65-km-long project was completed. The Metro railway was making profit to the tune of Rs.25 lakh per day and there was no Government subsidy on the system. However, the Delhi Government had to allot Rs.1.5 crore as subsidy to the Delhi Transport Corporation, he said.

A light metro railway was suggested for Kochi as the population of the city was below 3 million. The proposed project for Kochi would be carrying 25,000 to 30,000 passengers per hour per direction and the completion cost of the project would be Rs.2239 crore and the deadline would be 2010, Mr. Sreedharan said. President of the chamber John K. Paul, C.M. Dinesh Mani and K.V. Thomas, MLAs, Kochi Deputy Mayor C.K. Manisankar, District Collector Mohammad Hanish, and the former chairman of the Greater Cochin Development Authority, Antony Issac, took part in the programme.

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