Government releases Rs 800 crores for Phase 4 of Delhi Metro project

New Delhi (Urban Transport News): Central Government and Delhi Government on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court that together they have released Rs 800 crores to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for commencing construction work of three priority corridors of Phase IV of Delhi Metro Rail project. The fund was released by the government in this month after the Supreme court has recently resolved the long-pending disagreement between the Centre and Delhi government over three major issues viz. bearing operational losses, sharing of land cost and repayment of loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in case of default or currency fluctuation costs. Out of Rs 800 crores, Rs 600 crores released by the Delhi Government.

Now it is expected that the work on much stalled three priority corridors namely Mukundpur-Maujpur, R K Ashram-Janakpuri West and Aero City-Tughlaqabad are likely to commence soon. During the hearing of the matter on October 21, A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta recorded that "Rs 200 crore has been released by the Central government. Government of Delhi has also released Rs 600 crore. The statements are taken on record". Taking up the issue of dispute over sharing of operational losses, the bench accepted the opinion of senior advocate Aparajita Singh on behalf of Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) that DMRC had not suffered any operational losses for the last 5 (five) years and was not likely to suffer any losses in future.

We find nothing objectionable that in case the Delhi Metro suffers any loss, that is to be borne by the Delhi government, as the Metro rail system is the local conveyance within the state and considering the nature of the facilities, the loss, if any, should be borne by the state government. However, the state government has to ensure that its policies are such which do not cause any operational loss or otherwise due to the running of the metro trains. Hence, we do not find any substance in the objection raised by the government of Delhi.

Further hearing the issue related to repayment of the loan to be taken from the JICA in case of default or currency fluctuation cost, the bench said as per the central policies for 6 (six) states, the concerned state government has to provide support to ensure financial sustainability.

So far the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has not made any default in repayment of the loan. We do not find anything objectionable in case the Delhi government alone should bear the responsibility to provide support, if any, which may become necessary to repay the soft loan provided for the project. Government of Delhi is bound to ensure that the financial health of DMRC is maintained properly and no steps are taken so that it may run into losses.

The bench rejected the two objections raised by the Delhi government on phase IV of the Delhi Metro Rail project and said that there should be equal sharing of land acquisition costs between both the Centre and Delhi Government. “We direct that out of the land cost of Rs 2447.10 crore, 50% shall be borne by Delhi government and 50% by the Union of India (Central Government)”, said the bench. In December last year, Delhi Cabinet had given approval for a total cost of Rs 5,994.5 crore for the three priority corridors of phase IV of the Delhi Metro Rail project.