Gurgaon Rapid Metro is in trouble, may stop operations from September

Gurugram (Urban Transport News): Due to huge operation cost and lack of fund, the Rapid Metro Rail Gurgaon Limited (RMGL) has written a letter to the Haryana government and told that it will not be able to run trains after September 9 if no funds are made available to it. Gurgaon Rapid Metro has had an uncertain run since its parent company, IL&FS Transportation Networks Limited, ran into a huge financial crisis, facing a case of accounting fraud and, with low ridership, has been struggling to sustain itself.

According to data shared by the operator RMGL, the average daily ridership of the metro is nearly 60,000. However, it was expected to over 1,00,000 while constructing the first phase. After the opening of both phases of this project, no increase seen in the ridership and the operator is struggling with huge losses. Inviting the attention of the Government, the company had served a notice to Haryana Government in last July citing huge financial losses and sought a compensation of Rs 1,484 crore in order to sustain its operations.

The company further said that the money is needed to cure material breaches and defaults in the concession contract between the two parties. Reminding the government about its inability to run metro operation the RMGL has sent another notice to the Haryana government, making it clear that it would not be able to operate the metro beyond September 9. Talking about the "back up plan", a senior government official said,

While there is a possibility that Rapid Metro operations might get affected, post-September 9, we have a back-up plan in place and are hopeful of handling any situation. We have about 20 days to firm up this plan and come up with a possible solution.

It is pertinent to mention here that in November last year, the Haryana government had initiated talks with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for taking over and operating the Gurgaon Rapid Metro. But that plan seems to have not materialized. With a hope to hear from the government, a metro official said,

It has been more than a year since talks started but there has not been much progress. We have informed the government on multiple occasions that we will not be able to sustain operations if the compensation is not provided. At present, the train operations are running as usual. We are still waiting to hear from the government.

The official said that in the concession contract signed with the Haryana government, it was promised that other modes of transport like shared autos would not be permitted on the metro route once it became operational, but the government failed to keep its promise. In the contract, it was also agreed that adequate parking space would be provided at all metro stations and other revenue-earning options, like advertisements, would be made available.

But the government had rejected these as “baseless claims”. Rapid MetroRail Gurgaon is Country's first privately built and operated metro line.  It had started operation since 2013 and connecting the office hub in Cyber City with residential areas in Sector 55-56 and alongside Golf Course Road through a loop. It also provides passengers to interchange metro with Delhi  Metro Rail network at Sikanderpur on Yellow line.