Despite objections being raised by the Finance Ministry, Urban Development Minister S Jaipal Reddy chose to include the Kochi Metro in the list of metro projects at a function attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on Thursday.

"We are going for metro projects in Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and in due course in Kochi", Reddy said while addressing the national conference of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Later, he told Express that he was hopeful of the issues pertaining to the Kochi Metro project being sorted out and bringing the matter to the Cabinet for discussion.

"We are in talks with the Finance Ministry and the Planning Commission. We expect that the project would be discussed in the Cabinet soon", he said.

However, he evaded the question, whether the Planning Commission had also joined the `objecting club'.

But it is learnt from sources in the Ministry that the objections being raised by the Finance Ministry were not too undemanding to be downplayed. "The Finance Ministry is unconvinced about the viability of the project, and it is considering whether other cities should be awarded metro projects before Kochi gets it. It is also skeptical about the funding pattern", an official told Express.

The objections on the population factor and resource crunch, learnt to have been raised by the Finance Ministry, might take the project back to square one as the same questions were raised by the Planning Commission earlier.

But the Urban Development Ministry countered the Finance Ministry, stating that other cities were not so keen to have metro projects implemented.