BHOPAL (Metro Rail News): A loan of Rs 3200 crores has been approved for the Bhopal Metro from European Investment Bank (EIB). The contract will be signed when the international flight resumed. The remaining loan formalities have been completed by the Government of India, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Metro Rail Company and EIB. A senior official of the Metro Rail Company has confirmed that EIB will provide a loan of 400 million euros (Rs 3200 crore)
According to the officials of the Metro Rail Company, if the lockdown had not happened, the agreement would have been signed by now. The EIB gave an in-principle approval in the last week of November. After this, the Government of India, Government of Madhya Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Co Limited completed the formalities on their behalf.
In the present case only half a per cent interest .. The interest rate of this loan of EIB is variable. The rate will depend on how much interest is charged by banks in Europe at the time of payment. It is called Euro Bor. In the present case, it is negative. This euro bore would have to pay half a per cent extra interest and the negative would be considered zero. Also, there is no payment to be made during the construction of the metro. All the necessary formalities have been completed for this. There is to be a contract between all parties. Everyone’s presence for this
JICA had an interest rate of 0.3% but has conditions.
Five years ago, the International Cooperation Association (JICA) of Japan gave an in-principle approval on the loan for the Bhopal Metro. But in October 2016, we got to know that JICA refused to give the loan. The interest rate of the loan was only 0.3 per cent but included terms such as buying 30 per cent of the material from Japanese companies and taking 30 per cent of the additional material from joint companies in Japan and India. For this, the Japanese companies were seeking changes in the track and train and Madhya Pradesh Metro Rail Co Limited where not agree.
6.22 km of civil work on the ground and that too stoped for three months
The reality of the metro project is that the civil work of the 6.22 km route worth only Rs 247 crore started on the ground and that too has been closed for three months. The contractor company is not getting workers after the workers leave due to the lockdown. On the other hand, the second reality is that tenders were not issued for the civil work or trek laying of the remaining route or any other work.
