Delhi Metro Rail Corporation gets nod for light metro

Thiruvananthapuram: The state government has finally decided to execute the light metro projects mooted for Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode without private participation as insisted by consultants Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

The decision came after an hour-long meeting chaired by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy with finance department, DMRC, Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd (KMCL) and other ministers.

The state and the Centre will share 20 percent each to cover the total project cost and the rest of the outlay would be raised through a soft loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which a top official put nearly Rs 3,300 crore.

“JICA provides STEP (Special Terms for Economic Partnership) loans for urban mass transit systems. The main condition put forward by the government is that the DMRC should take up the responsibility for arranging the loan and the Union government share,” said the official.

The main concern raised by the finance department was that the project would turn out to be a huge financial burden for the government.

“However, the plan presented by the DMRC was easily convincing as the state government has to chip in only 20 percent of the project cost. There’s a repayment holiday for the first 10 years and the repayment period spans over 40 years,” said the official.