Bangalore, Mar 19: UB Transit Systems Ltd (UBTSL) plans to seek more time for submitting the detailed report on the Elevated Light Rail Transit System (ELRTS) project to the Karnataka government.Senior officials of the UB group said here on Thursday that the company was unable to prepare the report within the stipulated time. "We are in the process of fine-tuning the entire report and this will take some more time. We expect the project report to be ready in July," they said.
The state government had asked the company to prepare and submit the detailed report, which is considered as the status paper of the project, by this March. The industry minister RV Deshpande's resignation from the JH Patel ministry has now cast doubts over the fate of the Rs 4,200-crore project. Deshpande had been instrumental in clearing the project, which was expected to redress the long-standing commuting problem in the garden city.
The UB group also plans to trim its 46 per cent stake in the venture by roping in moreparticipants. The company is at present in talks with Siemens India, Union Switch & Signal Ltd of the Ansaldo group, Adtranz (an ABB arm) and GEC Alsthom for joint ventures.
Apart from UB the other companies that are part of the project are the US-based ICF Kaiser Engineers Inc (32 per cent) and Transportation & Transit Associates Inc (9 per cent). There is a third company also in the venture - Nippon Shrayo Ltd of Japan which has a 13 per cent stake.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
