Delay pushing up cost of Kochi metro

Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) principal adviser E Sreedharan has said inordinate delay in taking decisions would badly affect the cost of Kochi metro. The project report was prepared by DMRC and submitted to the state government in 2005. Since then, the cost has gone up to Rs 5,182 crore (original around Rs 2,250 crore).

“The delay was due to the wrong decisions taken by the State Planning Board and this time only the bureaucrats are to be blamed and not the politicians,” he said while delivering a lecture on ‘Kochi Metro - How it will change the face of the city’ organised by the Kerala Management Association.

Kochi metro will be a replica of Delhi metro. This will be a light-type of metro, which will carry 36,000 people per direction unlike the Delhi metro, which is a heavy-type metro. It will have 300,000-500,000 ridership per day.

The proposed project will be completely elevated, the stations will be user-friendly, especially for physically-challenged people.

Sreedharan said the implementation of Kochi metro should not be delayed further because each day the metro is delayed, it would cost an extra Rs 40 lakh per day.