Transport Dept, KMRL Spar Over Foreign Trips by Metro Officials

The Transport department and Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) have locked horns over foreign travel undertaken by the metro agency's officials, with the department seeking a five-year record of such trips and KMRL rejecting the allegations as unfounded.

The information sought covers foreign visits by officials including Loknath Behera, who served as KMRL managing director. The department has also asked for the minutes of KMRL director board meetings that ratified the officials' foreign travel and the related expenditure as recorded in audit reports. Details of the agency's travel policy, along with the share of its budget set aside for foreign and domestic travel, were sought as well.

KMRL has pushed back on the department's position. Officials of the metro agency said state government permission was not required for the trips, and that clearance had been sought from the Chairman of the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs.

According to KMRL sources, the agency replied to the department's letter on August 28. They pointed out that KMRL, as a party to a tripartite agreement involving the State and the Centre, functions in line with Central Vigilance Commission guidelines. Under that arrangement, the agency is empowered to take independent decisions, including on foreign travel by its officials.

The sources added that the State government had been kept informed of the trips, a requirement that applied to officials still in government service. Behera had retired as Kerala's Director General of Police before taking charge as KMRL managing director. For other officials of the metro agency, the permission of the managing director alone was sufficient, they said.

KMRL maintained that there was no valid ground for seeking government permission for any of the trips made over the past five years.