Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am informed that the phase 3 of the Metro Express Project which pertains to the extension of the Metro line over a distance of 3.4 km from Rose Hill to Reduit was implemented following a decision taken by the then Government on 30 December 2020. I would like here Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir to remind the House that at the time, according to records available at my Ministry, the light-rail project was being spearheaded by the then Prime Minister’s Office. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to part (a) of the question, I am informed by Metro Express Ltd that a proper feasibility study that is, a proper technical and financial study was not carried out for phase 3 of the Metro Express Ltd project. In fact, the decision to proceed with the project was made following a case put forward by the consultant for the project, Singapore Corporation Enterprise in 2016 in its references design.

71 The Consultant had identified the regions of Ebène, including the Cybercity and Reduit as a critical commuter base which justified the need for an efficient mass transit. The then management of Metro Express Ltd estimated the number of commuters to be 30,000 at Ebène and 11,000 at Reduit. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I am informed by MEL that this line has much lower commuter figures, averaging daily 3200 commuters on weekdays, 1490 Saturdays and 522 for Sundays. The total fair amount generated for year 2024 is Rs30,736,428; resulting an average monthly amount Rs2,561,369. Worse, if we take the fair amount for last month, February 2025, it is only Rs1.7 million, that is much less than the expected ridership income. It is therefore evident Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, that MEL is operating at a terrible loss over the line. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, during the previous mandate, I had, on two occasions, personally drawn the attention of the House and the population at large, firstly, in the much- debated Parliamentary Question No. B/223 of 18 April 2023 and the next one, one month later, PQ No. B/596 that the project was not workable. In fact, I had used the word ‘total failure’. It is in Hansard. When we take into account that the cost of phase 3 stood at Rs4.55 billion, which is the figure hon. Lobine had requested for in part (b) of the question, a simple calculation shows that this tantamount to Rs1.3 billion per km without any cost of train, that is, R 1.34 million par mètre linéaire de voie ferrée. This costed Rs1.34 million from on average from Rose Hill to Reduit. This cost quite a lot. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, these Rs4.55 billion worth of works were effected through a variation to the existing main contract for Metro Express project with Larsen & Toubro. This amounts coincidentally to 24%, slightly less than the prescribed threshold of 25% of the equivalent of Rs18.8 billion for the main contract. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, as a professional of the construction industry, I have always viewed this particular course of action adopted by the then Government for this particular variation as being highly debatable because the extension per se, was not along the line Curepipe to Port Louis but was in a completely distinct new line from Rose Hill to Réduit which is not in the direction of the main metro line which costed Rs18.8 billion. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, with regard to the further extension of the metro line, I am informed that a feasibility study was carried out in October 2021 by a team of Metro Express Ltd with a technical assistance of RITES Ltd. This study coverered the extension of Metro

72 line from Reduit towards Cote D’or and St Pierre and from Curepipe to La Vigie. The report was submitted in April 2022 at a total cost of Rs21.98 million nearly Rs22 million out of which, Rs 18 million was paid to RITES Ltd and Rs3.98 million to the inhouse team at Metro Express Ltd. No tender exercise was done for this consultancy exercise. Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, I wish to point out that the procurement process for the construction under phase 4 of the Metro Express project was cancelled by the empowered Inter-Ministerial Committee of the Government of India in September 2023 and that the project is currently put on hold as advised by the EXIM Bank of India. Thank you.

Yes, hon. Lobine!

May I ask the hon. Minister, with regard to the total failure of the Metro Express Project, will his Ministry conduct a comprehensive and full-fledged study as to the impact on the coffers of the State with regard to additional money that this Government will now have to pour in to make this workable, in view of this total failure of Metro Express that has been implemented?

Certainly! We are implementing measures. As a matter of fact, I have given instruction to stop the trains working on Sundays because it is a total wastage. As regards to the other days, we will be working on it and try to see how to enhance ridership on that line.

The hon. Third Member for Port Louis South and Port Louis Central! INVALIDITY PENSIONS – CANCELLATION