Kerala Rapid Transit Corporation Ltd


Kerala Rapid Transit Corporation Ltd, abbreviated to KRTL, is a special purpose vehicle formed to implement light metro projects in Kerala. Kerala has light metro systems planned for the cities of Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. The SPV is fully owned by the State Government and the Chief Minister is the Chairman of the company. The head office of KRTL is at Thiruvananthapuram, with branches at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. Earlier it was Kerala Monorail Corporation Ltd. Since monorail was not financially viable, DMRC proposed light metro.
The chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, is the chairman of the board and Public Works Minister G. Sudhakaran is vice chairman. The other board members are Ministers TM Thomas Isaac, A.K. Saseendran, EP Jayarajan, E. Chandrasekharan, Ramachandran Kadannappalli and T.P. Ramakrishnan as well as officials of Public Works and Transport departments.

History

Administrative sanction was given in October 2012 to begin monorail projects in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. KMCL was given control of the Thiruvananthapuram Monorail project on 26 November 2012. The government had handed over the Kozhikode Monorail project to the KMCL prior to that. The state government received approval to float KMCL from the registrar of companies and was incorporated on 5 December 2012. KMCL's first board meeting was held in Thiruvananthapuram on 18 December 2012. At the meeting, it was decided to open KMCL offices in the two cities.
On 12 June 2013, the State Cabinet gave clearance for an agreement to be signed between KMCL and DMRC, that would make the latter the general consultant for the monorail projects in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram. The DMRC will receive a consultancy fee of 3.25% of the 5,581 crore. The agreement was signed on 19 June 2013.