The state urban development department has agreed to most of the demands made by private firms interested in the execution of the proposed Metro rail system in Patna under public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

The department, in fact, has decided to extend the tenu-re of the technical and financial feasibility study for the proposed project from six to 15 months under the pressure from private parties.

The decision has been taken despite strong objections raised by “Metro man” E. Sreedharan against starting Metro projects under the PPP mode in the country for at least the next five years. Sreedharan, who heads the working group of central planning commission on urban transport for the 12th Five-Year Plan, has contended that private investment in big Metro projects has not been fruitful and is not advisable in India.

The suggestion certainly hasn’t rung a bell for the state urban development department which has accepted the unanimous desire of interested firms of splitting the entire study into two stages and subsequently extending the project period to 15 months.

According to the resolutions taken during the second pre-proposal conference on Tuesday, the urban development department would issue a new request for proposal (RFP) within the coming 10 days for selection of consultants who would conduct the pre-feasibility study for the proposed rail system. “The selected consultant would be required to conduct traffic volume survey, including projections for next 20 to 30 years, determine modes of urban transit system — Metro/ mono/BRT (bus rapid transit) — or their combination and the corresponding route alignments in the first stage. The corresponding pre-feasibility report would have to be furnished within six months,” said Shashi Shekhar Sharma, principal secretary, urban development department.

Based on the findings of the pre-feasibility report, the department would issue a second RFP for the selection of a consultant to prepare the detailed project report (DPR).

“The preparation of DPR would include technical and financial feasibility study for the route alignment suggested in the preliminary project report in stage-I. It would also suggest detailed engineering designs, including locations of stations and depot and final cost estimates amo-ng other things. The selected consultant would be required to furnish the final DPR within nine months,” said an official.

A senior executive of RITES, a government enterprise, proposed to the department to allow the organisation to conduct the study. “We are already conducting the geo-technological study for the mono rail in Patna for the Indian Railways. If the department gives us the project, then it would be a win-win situation for both as we would just need to update our findings. This in turn would reduce the cost of the study as well,” said the executive.