GoM meet on Metro today

GoM meet on Metro today
Deccan Herald

With a crucial meeting of Group of Ministers slated for Thursday to decide key issues relating to Bangalore Metro, Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajashekharan lobbied hard on Wednesday to get the long delayed project through.

With a crucial meeting of Group of Ministers slated for Thursday to decide key issues relating to Bangalore Metro, Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajashekharan lobbied hard on Wednesday to get the long delayed project through.

Mr Rajashekharan called on GoM Chairman and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav and Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy – both members of GoM - to impress upon them the urgency in pushing the project through. Mr Rajashekharan told Deccan Herald later that all three leaders had told him that the project, in all probability, would be cleared by GoM. The Rs 6000-odd crore project will be placed before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs if it crosses the hurdle on Thursday.

Mr Rajashekharan said he was able to convince the three ministers about the cost escalation if the project was delayed. Every day’s delay was costing the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) Rs 80 lakh. Another crucial factor is that the loan proposal from the Japanese Bank for International Co-operation would lapse if the Centre fails to clear the project before March 31, after which the JBIC would have to consider it afresh.

Clearance crucial

JBIC has already given initial approval for a soft loan of Rs 1,800 crore at 1.3 per cent interest. The loan agreement will have to be signed during the last week of March in Tokyo. If CCEA does not clear it by that time, there will be a year’s delay to reconsider the loan.

The Metro loan is the largest that JBIC considered among the 10 projects it agreed to finance this fiscal.

The GoM is tasked with going through the track system that Metros in the country, including Bangalore, should adopt- broadgauge or standard gauge - and the legal cover for these projects.

Mr Rajashekharan wrote a letter to Chief Minister H D Kumaaraswamy mentioning his meetings with the three members of GoM and congratulating him for taking a clear stand that Bangalore Metro should go ahead.