CHENNAI: Chennai metro railway, within a month of obtaining cabinet clearance and awarding contracts for the first phase of construction, touched yet another milestone this week, by employing a European technical consultant for design and supervision of the project. Chennai metro rail corporation (CMRL) has awarded the USD 30 million technical consultancy contract to a consortium of five companies named Egis Rail India, led by French transport infrastructure projects company Egis Projects. US-based NYSE listed engineering and architectural design giant Aecom Technology Corporation is part of the consortium. While the names of other firms involved in the consortium are not known, an official source confirmed the awarding of the contract to Egis. “The technical consultant will conduct engineering feasibility studies, prepare designs and oversee their execution,” the source said. CMRL, the management consultant, will continue to be the entity tendering construction contracts. Egis projects, which has been involved in a number of road and rail based projects in Europe, including high speed, light and underground rail lines in France, earns 9% of its revenues from Asia. Its Indian subsidiary Egis India has floated the consortium Egis Rail India, which was one of the two entities, short-listed from six, for the final race to the Chennai metro rail consultancy contract. The same consortium has also won the $20 million contract for technical consultancy to the Kolkata metro rail project.
The Rs 14, 600 crore or USD 3 billion Chennai metro rail project has the distinction of getting the speediest cabinet clearance as well as secure funding, 13 months from the date of proposal.
The Tamil Nadu government which will hold a 15% stake and loan 6% as debt to the project, made a provision of Rs.600 crore for the passenger railway in its budget allocation for 2009-10. The chief minister, M Karunanidhi is slated to lay foundation stone for the first phase of elevated corridor from Koyambedu to Ashok Nagar. Investigations for linking the poorly connected northern suburb of Thiruvottiyur to the metro lines, are on. CMRL has stipulated 2015 as the deadline for Egis to execute the project. Kolkata metro rail is also expected to be completed on the same deadline.
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