The Light Rail Transit system (LRT) was conceived by the Labour Government following the state visit of the former Prime Minister (PM) Navin Ramgoolam to Singapore. The then Government set up a steering committee under the chairmanship of the then Cabinet Secretary Mr. Suresh Seebaluck. The steering committee was comprised of the Financial Secretary Mr. Dev Manraj, the Solicitor General Mr. Dhiren Daby, the Supervising Officer of Ministry of Public Infrastructure Mr. Pather, the Principal Engineer Mr. Reesaul, State Law Officer Mr. Raj Aujayeb, the Senior Advisor to PM Mr. Kailash Ruhee, the Permanent Secretary of Land Transport Mr. N. Ballah (who is presently the Cabinet Secretary) and other officers of the Ministry of Finance.

The then Government also appointed the Singapore Corporation Enterprise to undertake a feasibility study and thereafter to design the project. They prepared the alignment in collaboration with Mauritian officials. They also prepared the Tender documents. Bids were invited from reputed international companies. Six companies had purchased the Expression of Interests documents but only two submissions were received. Both submissions were as per the criteria sought and the bidders were issued the Request for Proposal documentation. Ultimately AFCONS was selected as the best responsive bidder under a Design and Construct FIDIC procurement. The Bid Evaluation exercise was carried out in Singapore by the Singapore Corporation Enterprise and our officials jointly.

Once the successful bidder was identified, the Government of Mauritius sought the financial assistance of the Government of India to implement the project. The latter agreed to finance the project to the tune of $ 600 million. The remaining cost was to be financed from funds raised locally as advised by the Financial Secretary Mr. Manraj. The rate of $ was Rs 31.

The Government of India also agreed to subsidise the interest rate to 0.8%. Negotiations were held with the successful bidder with a view to reducing the cost of the project. The Cabinet Secretary, the Financial Secretary, the Solicitor General and Mr. Kailash Ruhee participated in the negotiations. After lengthy discussions, the cost was brought down to Rs 24.8 billion. Subsequently, the views of Singapore Corporation Enterprise were sought and they agreed that the sum quoted was fair and reasonable based upon their financial and economic feasibilities.

As we were in the process of finalizing all the details relating to the allocation of the contract, Pravind Jugnauth (the then Leader of Opposition) wrote a letter – the famous “Dear Modi-ji” – to the Prime Minister of India, advising the latter not to provide funding for the project. Despite his shameful, unpatriotic and indecent effort to kill the project, the Government of India maintained its position to provide the necessary fund. Unfortunately, immediately after coming into power, the present Government decided to scrap the project and now after two and a half years, the same Government has decided to implement the project. Who is then the hypocrite? The Labour Govern- ment had even created the MLRT Ltd, under the chairmanship of Mr. Ballah, and was supposed to act as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for the project. The MSM Government copied and pasted the same structure through the MetroExpress Ltd. The project presented by Pravind Jugnauth is based entirely on the horizontal alignment, i.e. on the planar view alignment prepared by the previous Government. They have just renamed the project and removed almost all overhead passing of the trains to ground level. The mass transit system is more a tramway project rather than a Light Rail project. People would surely realise the extent of inconvenience that this new project is likely to cause as the mass transit system in many areas will compete with the road traffic and the problem of traffic congestion will worsen. Who says that there will not be loss in employment? Hon. Bodha should give the written comfort to our transport employees. At the time of the Labour Government there was the commitment and all unions and bus operators were members of sub committees in the project. The commitment of no employment losses was there. Today, and to be more accurate, as from the 31 July 2017, the actual Government will have to commit itself on guarantees pertained to no employment losses, continuous accessibilities of vehicles during construction, non interrupted water supplies when services will have to be relocated, no overruns and not to mask any expenses over and above the Rs 18.8 billion by justifying these through additional works or having various departments spending on the project under budgetary items. Who is then the hypocrite? Even the short 3D movie (as shown on MBC) of the Metro Express is the baby of the Labour Government. Shame!