The Hindu Business Line : Kerala Cabinet okays metro rail for Kochi city

The State Government will also participate in the project, which is roughly estimated to cost Rs 2,000 crore, according to the Chief Minister, Mr Oommen Chandy.

He told reporters after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that the Cabinet decided to appoint Delhi Metro Rail Corporation as the consultant for preparing a detailed project report.

He said that the Government had two proposals before it to solve the perennial problem of severe traffic congestion in the city. One was to launch a sky-bus service and the other to establish a metro rail system. The Cabinet has now decided in favour of the latter.

The rail system will first be laid from Kalamassery to the city and later extended up to the Nedumbassery International Airport, covering a total length of nearly 30 km. There will be 27 stations dotting the stretch.

The Chief Minister said that the consultant would be asked to submit the detailed project proposal at the earliest so as to start the work on the project in 2006 and complete it in 2010.

The Cabinet also decided that the State would make an offer to the other Southern States, including Pondicherry and Goa, to make available to them one acre plot each either in Thiruvananthapuram or Kochi for opening their liaison offices.

This will, however, be subject to these States making a similar offer to Kerala for opening its liaison offices there. The State's offer would be conveyed to the chief ministers of the other States soon, Mr Chandy said.

Explaining the other decisions of the Cabinet, he said during the 100-day action plan, the Government had reported about 20,000 vacancies in various services and public sector undertakings to the Public Service Commission (PSC). However, there were still isolated cases to be addressed and it had been decided to extend the validity of all the existing PSC lists till March 31 next year.

On the problems on the pepper procurement front, he said though the Government had already issued the necessary orders, there was delay in procurement in the major pepper growing districts of Wayanad and Idukki. This was due to the fact the produce from the farmers would start arriving only after a few more days.

The Government has convened a meeting of Marketfed and other co-operatives authorities on Friday to discuss the issue in detail and work out a concrete programme, the Chief Minister said.

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