Thiruvananthapuram: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation`s participation in the Kochi Metro Rail Project Limited has turned into a vexed issue for the Kerala government amid charges that it was not keen on using the services of `metroman` E Sreedharan for the project.
To allay apprehensions that government was playing hide and seek on the matter, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy last night called up Sreedharan who has agreed to meet him here on Wednesday, official sources said.
Though the Cabinet had decided that the project would be awarded to DMRC under the supervision of its principal advisor E Sreedharan, a recent letter by Public Works Principal Secretary seeking details of Sreedharan`s powers in the DMRC has kicked up a row.
The letter from Tom Jose, the former managing director of KMRL and now PWD principal secretary, released by CPI(M) MP P Rajeev yesterday, seeks clarifications from DMRC chairman Sudheer Krishna whether the works proposed to be taken up in the state by DMRC had been ratified by its director board.
Rajeev had expressed concern that Sreedharan was being targeted by `vested interests`.
The government had also decided to seek explanation from Jose who had written to Krishna in his official letter head, when the cabinet had already decided to award the project to DMRC and was awaiting a decision from them, sources said.
The KMRL board meeting at Kochi on Friday last had decided to wait for the decision on KMRL by the DMRC director board to be held on November 15.
PTI
