JICA shows interest in funding Surat Metro Rail Project

Japan International Corporation Agency (JICA), the Japanese funding agency, has shown keen interest in financing the Rs 4,000 crore Surat Metro Rail Project. The detailed project report (DPR) of the 35-km-long metro rail, being prepared by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) along with CEPT University in Ahmedabad, is likely to be ready in next six months. A five-member team of international management consulting firm Ernst & Young, which functions as financial assessors of JICA, has been camping in Surat to assess demand and possibility of adopting several corridors. After getting the financial assessment report from Ernst & Young, JICA will discuss the same with the state and Central Government, and implementation is expected to begin after the financial loan is granted. JICA is known to be interested in financing metro project of two cities in India, one of them being Surat. While officials from JICA were in Surat for assessment of the project cost, the agency will take a final call once the DPR is ready by March 2017. Meanwhile, DMRC and CEPT are conducting a study to check the feasibility of different corridors and making specific demand assessment of each corridor. According to CEPT, the work is going on and more than a dozen corridors are being assessed. The state government has also named Metro Link Express Gandhinagar-Ahmedabad (MEGA) as the nodal agency for implementation of metro projects in the different cities of the state.