Kochi, Tuesday 06 July 2010: Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs M. Vijayakumar has said that the objections levelled by the Planning Commission to deny permission to execute the Kochi metro-rail project as a joint venture between the State and Central Governments are terrible.

He was reacting to the stand taken by the Commission on Monday, which is diametrically opposite to the decision taken by it over a year ago, in which it had given the nod for the project on the lines of the Delhi metro-rail.

Vijayakumar said that the Commission’s suggestion to rope in private players to execute the project is unfeasible in Kochi. He said that Prime Minister must intervene in the issue.

Earlier report

Planning Commission on Monday dismissed State’s proposal for implementing Kochi Metro rail project as a Centre- State joint venture. The project could be implemented as a public- private joint venture, opined Montaik Singh Aluvalia, Deputy leader of the planning commission.

The State’s demand to execute the project in the same model of Delhi Metro couldn’t be accepted, as the situations regarding both the cases are different. In the case of Delhi project the property was owned by the center where as the case of Kochi is different.