‘Metro man’ Elattuvalapil Sreedharan revealed on Thursday, 8 March, that Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has withdrawn from major metro projects in Kerala because of “lack of progress”.

This comes four years after the DMRC had submitted a Detailed Project Report (DPR) on the Light Metro project in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode. The Kerala government also failed to sign the agreement with the DMRC submitted to it 15 months ago.

According to The News Minute, Sreedharan, a former DMRC chairman and current Principal Advisor, said in a press meet held in Kochi blamed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for failing to solve the issues even after an assurance. He said that the DMRC was backing away because to “safeguard financial interest” and has no complaint against the state government.

Sreedharan, a retired IES-officer credited with transforming public transport in India with his work in Delhi and Konkan railways, said that he had met Vijayan and other officials in Kerala many times to find a solution.

He said that usually state governments commence work prior to approval from the Government of India, which comes in two years after the DPR is submitted.

“In many cases, including metro construction in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, GoI approval was received after the work commenced using the state government fund. But Kerala government did not do this; they took the stand that at least in-principle approval should be received before commencing the work,” he was quoted as saying.

Sreedharan said that the LDF government gave the nod for preparatory works after it came to power in 2016. “The CM took a stand that we should start the construction work after we get approval from GoI,” he said adding that the DMRC had informed the state government about the lack of progress in May 2017.

The 85-year-old Padma Vibhushan honouree said that the final nail came during a meeting of Kerala Rapid Transit Corporation Limited (KRTL), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of the Government of Kerala, in which suggestions were made that the preparatory works be assigned to another company.

He said that the DMRC had apprised the state government of its decision to pull out of the project on 21 January. The DMRC has already started shutting down the two offices it opened in the state in 2014.