By IANS
New Delhi : Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Abdullah Dardari is keen to avail the assistance of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to strengthen its public transport system, officials said here Friday.
“Dardari said Syria was keen to have DMRC’s assistance in analysing the feasibility report for a Metro for its capital Damascus, currently being prepared by SYSTRA France,” Delhi Metro spokesman Anuj Dayal said.
“It also wanted to collaborate with the DMRC to understand its project implementation strategy and project management techniques because of which the Delhi Metro project was completed before time and within budget,” Dayal added.
Dardari, who is now in Delhi, took a Metro ride Thursday on the Central Secretariat-Delhi University stretch and expressed satisfaction over the modern transport system of the capital.
Dardari said a delegation from the Syrian government would visit the Delhi Metro to get a first-hand experience of the Phase-I operations, construction activities in Phase-II, training facilities and the DMRC’s expertise in various fields such as consultancy.
“This would be followed by a visit to Damascus by a DMRC delegation, which would study the feasibility report and also the ground conditions,” Dayal said, adding “Dardari was keen that the exchange of delegations takes place within two months”.
DMRC first international consultancy assignment was for doing a Special Assistance on Project Implementation (SAPI) study for the Jakarta Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Indonesia.
Other countries that have shown interest in Delhi Metro’s expertise include Ireland, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
Delhi Metro currently covers a network of 65 km and ferries over 600,000 passengers everyday. Constructions are on to add another 118 km to its network before the Delhi Commonwealth Games in 2010.