CCEA meeting skips Bangalore Metro Rail

CCEA meeting skips Bangalore Metro Rail

The Hindu

BANGALORE: The meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) held on Thursday in New Delhi did not take up the Bangalore Metro Rail, according to reports reaching here.

The project has been pending for over three weeks before the CCEA after the Group of Ministers (GoM) approved the Rs. 6,300-crore project earlier this month.

Final step

The CCEA clearance is the final step before the project can be implemented. Without this approval, the Government of India cannot sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Japan for the Rs. 1,800-crore loan from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC).

The Union Government, which is the borrower of the loan on behalf of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (BMRC), can go through the loan agreement with JBIC only after the two governments sign the MoU.

Assistance

Sources at JBIC have clarified that the Government of Japan is keen to advance Official Development Assistance (ODA) at an interest rate of 1.3 per cent.

Barclay's Capital, an international bank, absorbs the currency fluctuations of the loan given in the Japanese currency, the Yen. Barclay's charges 2.3 per cent.

Thus, the metro rail project is expected to get the loan at the rate of 3.6 per cent.

The project is expected to get a moratorium of 10 years. The loan is repayable over 37 years.