Lucknow, April 5 (IANS): A committee headed by Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani will oversee the "formative steps" of the ambitious metro rail project for the state capital, officials said Friday.

The project, aimed at easing traffic in Lucknow, will have 13 other officials, besides the chief secretary.

The departments of planning, finance, urban development, transport, housing, Lucknow Development Authority, police and traffic will be represented in the committee, officials told IANS.

The committee would function until a special purpose vehicle (SPV) is set up to take over the project and detail its road map.

In February, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had given the green signal to set up a metro rail system for the state capital. This would be the most expensive public transport system in the state, providing speedy mass transport and decongesting city roads.

The committee is likely to oversee initial processes, and bids would be invited for a developer.

After that, an SPV is expected to take over the metro project.

The Lucknow metro is likely to proceed on the lines of the metro rail project in Hyderabad, and would be taken up on a public-private-partnership (PPP) model.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has already submitted a detailed project report to the state government in which estimated costs for the project were billed at Rs.12,500 crore.

While the DMRC has advocated underground systems, the government apparently is keen on the much cheaper overhead track system.

DMRC teams have twice visited the state recently in connection with the project.