A day after the Union Cabinet gave its green signal to the Kochi Metro rail project, the question, who will be the implementing agency, remains unanswered.
Confusion is prevailing among the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and the Kochi Metro Rail Ltd over the issue, as Union urban development secretary Sudhir Krishna on Wednesday left the matter unclear while explaining the project details in the national capital.
Meanwhile, sources said DMRC former managing director E. Sreedharan, who is better known as the Metro Man, has told Union food minister K.V. Thomas, who represents the constituency in Parliament, that a timely implementation of the project could be possible only if it was entrusted to the DMRC.
Asked about the implementing agency of Kochi Metro, Krishna told the media that it was upto the KMRL to take a decision, and added that KMRL itself was a company that could go ahead with the implementation.
On Sreedharan’s role in the Kochi Metro project, he said Sreedharan was a very respected person and it was upto him to take a decision.
Earlier, a controversy had erupted with some quarters alleging that the Kerala government was trying to avoid DMRC from the project implementation for some reason.
They also alleged that the decision to entrust the project work to KMRL would be immature as it had no prior experience in this field.
Meanwhile, Krishna said KMRL would be reconstituted very soon with central government participation.