Monorail DPR for Trivandrum and Kozhikode to be submitted for nod.

The revised Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the Rs.5,581-crore monorail projects, an elevated Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, will be submitted soon to the Union Ministry of Urban Development for approval.

This was decided at the seventh board meeting of Kerala Monorail Corporation Limited (KMCL), SPV set up to execute the MRTS, chaired by KMCL chairman and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the legislature complex recently.

The board was informed that five companies - Bombardier Transportation, Hitachi, Afcons, Scumi, and Larsen and Toubro - dealing with the MRTS had expressed interest after tender norms to select an exclusive developer-contractor were revised by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, the general consultant.

As per the revised norms, the rolling stock manufacturer need only be a technical partner. The supplier-credit norm had also been removed in the wake of a directive of the Urban Development Ministry.

The board had set up a committee comprising the Secretaries of Finance, Public Works, and Law, and managing directors of the KMCL and Kochi Metro Rail Limited to look into the amendments made in the DPR.

The board was told that global tenders had to be floated again treating the monorail projects as one as only a 36.4-km stretch would be covered in the first phase in both the cities.


THE HINDU