NEW DELHI: Scomi Engineering Bhd is keen to participate in the elevated Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) project in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode in India's southern state of Kerala.

"If the project tender is refloated, we would be keen to participate," its head of Business Development, S. Selvaraja Chinnasamy said.

He added that participation would also depend on the rules and regulations for the Expression of Interest (EOI).

"If the current stringent specifications are relaxed, we would be
interested," he told Bernama when asked about news report that the tender for the project would be refloated.

The Hindu newspaper reported that a global tender for the said project would be refloated to select the exclusive developer-contractor, as only one firm, Bombardier Transportation, had come forward with the EOI when an extended deadline for submission ended on Tuesday.

The EOI is part of the global tender floated by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), the general consultant for Kerala Mono Rail Corporation Ltd (KMCL), a special purpose vehicle set up by the government to execute the project in the two cities.

Confirming that only one company had submitted the EOI, State Planning Board Member and Principal adviser, DMRC, E. Sreedharan told the English-daily: "We cannot go forward with the EOI from one company and will have to go for re-tendering again."

Firms specialising in MRTS from the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, and China had expressed interest in the project and attended the pre-EOI conference held in Delhi.

But the overall lack of interest from relevant companies in submitting the EOI has surprised proponents of the project and Sreedharan, who had announced that work on the monorail in Kozhikode, would commence in February.

The last date of submission of the EOI was October 1 and was extended to October 15 following requests from the participants.

Sreedharan was reported as saying that a high level meeting in Delhi on October 21 would discuss the issue in detail and come up with a course of action.

Global tenders were floated by treating the two monorail projects as one, as only a 36.4 km stretch would be covered in the first phase, in both the cities.-- Bernama