New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC), has received a spate of requests from State governments within the country, as well as some foreign countries, for providing consultancy for setting up Metro systems in their capital cities. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, Union minister of state for urban development, Ajay Maken, said that Sri Lanka and Syria had approached the corporation for feasibility and detailed project reports for Metro systems for their respective capitals, Colombo and Damascus.

Within the country, various State governments are exploring the viability for such a system and have also approached the DMRC for feasibility and project reports as well. The cities, for which State governments have evinced interest, are Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, NOIDA, Gurgaon, Faridabad and Pune.

According to Maken, the DMRC is undertaking the consultancy on the basis of the experience and expertise gained while executing the Delhi Metro Project. He also mentioned that DMRC would not undertake the consultancy on a purely commercial basis and that the consultancy charges, as proposed, would be quite meager as compared to other international consultants.

The minister also stated that the net revenue generated from consultancy by DMRC Ltd., after meeting all expenditures, for the year 2005-06 was Rs.4.68 crore, as compared to Rs2.18 crore for 2004-05.