KOCHI: The crucial Public Investment Board (PIB) meeting, which is expected to give nod to the proposed Kochi Metro Rail, will be held in New Delhi on Thursday. Once the project gets the clearance of the PIB, it will be presented before the Union Cabinet for approval. The Metro Rail authorities hope that the `5,600 project will get the Union Government’s clearance soon. It was in October 2011 that the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) submitted the necessary documents to the Centre. The pre-PIB meeting held on November referred the proposal to the Department of Expenditure and the PIB meeting was actually scheduled for January 2012. But with the Finance Ministry starting the Budget preparation by then, the meeting was rescheduled. Now, with the Centre announcing the date for the PIB meeting, the Kochi Metro Rail project is all set to have a take-off by April. Earlier, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy who visited Kochi the other day had also said that he had got the assurance from the Centre that the Kochi Metro will get the Centre’s clearance by the end of this month. The capital-intensive project, which is expected to give a thrust to the infrastructure development of the city, is likely to be implemented in line with the Chennai Metro Rail project. Apart from the Centre and State funds, the remaining amount will be raised as loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
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