Delhi Metro Phase 4 stuck on cost-sharing dispute

The Delhi Metro’s Phase IV expansion plan, which was stuck for more than two years and finally got the go-ahead from the Union Cabinet on March 7, has hit another roadblock due to a fresh funding dispute between the Centre and the Delhi government, according to senior officials familiar with the matter and government documents accessed by HT.

On March 20, Delhi transport minister Kailash Gahlot directed his department to tell the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) not to start work on Phase IV until it got further clarifications on the project’s funding. Gahlot’s objection was that the state government’s share of the expenditure for the three corridors to be constructed by 2024 had increased by 30.86% after the Union Cabinet granted approval.

The Union ministry of housing and urban affairs and the Delhi government are 50-50 owners of DMRC. “The matter was brought to my notice when DMRC wrote to the Delhi government seeking Rs 200 crore to start initial works on the project. As per DMRC’s new funding plan, after the Centre cleared the three routes, the share of Delhi government increased to Rs 7,844.70 crore from Rs 5,994.50 crore that was earlier approved by the state Cabinet for the same lines,” transport minister Kailash Gahlot said.

The Delhi Cabinet had approved all six corridors of Phase-IV on December 19, 2018.

In its last meeting before the Election Commission announced the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Union Cabinet approved three “priority corridors” of the Delhi Metro’s Phase-IV to address traffic and rising pollution levels in the national capital. The approved corridors were Aerocity to Tughlakabad, Janakpuri to RK Ashram and Mukundpur to Maujpur. The other three corridors — Rithala-Bawana-Narela, Inderlok to Indraprastha and Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block — were put on hold.

The three priority corridors are expected to carry over 600,000 passengers in its first year— about 22.6% of the Metro’s existing daily ridership of 26.5 lakh.

The note prepared by the transport department to DMRC suggests that while the Delhi government’s expenditure share has increased, the overall cost of the project for the three lines has come down.

According to the revised project plan, the note says, the three lines and 244 additional coaches will cost Rs 24,948.65 crore instead of the Rs 28,865 crore approved by the Delhi Cabinet.

“DMRC may be communicated that it would not start work on the project till the GOI [Government of India] revises its decision in tune with the Cabinet decision of the Delhi government,” read the direction given by Gahlot in the note, which was seen by HT.

The document attributes the Delhi government’s increased share to the Centre putting the entirety of the cost of land on the city administration. “As per GOI’s approval, 100% of funds regarding subordinate debt for land cost and R&R (rehabilitation and resettlement) has been assigned to Delhi government. This is in variation to the revised funding plan wherein funds towards subordinate debt for land was to be contributed by GOI and GNCTD in 50:50 ratio,” the note stated.

According to the document, the cost (Rs 2,447.19 crore) to be borne by the Delhi government for land for the three lines only is more than what it was earlier asked to pay (Rs 2,121.5 crore) for all the six lines.

On March 26, six days after the note was sent, the transport department issued a “conditional sanction” of Rs 200 crore to DMRC if the original funding plan would be restored.

While DMRC declined to comment on the issue, it said that designing work for Phase IV has started. “The preparation of drawings, including structural drawings will take up to three months. The process of finalising and floating tenders can only start after the drawings are prepared,” a Metro official said.

Construction work was to begin in October, but a senior DMRC official said on condition of anonymity that it is likely to be delayed following the latest tussle.

When contacted, the Union ministry of housing and urban affairs said it was yet to receive any fresh objection from the Delhi government on the project. “We have not received any communication from the Delhi government as yet. So, it would not be appropriate to comment at the moment,” said Mukund Kumar Sinha, officer on special duty (urban transport) and ex-officio joint secretary, MoHUA.

The initial deadline for completion of all the six lines of the Phase IV project was 2022, which now has been extended to December 31, 2024. In 2017 and 2018, the project was delayed primarily because the Delhi government refused to approve it in entirety saying it was “financially unviable”. It was after the project cost was slashed by Rs 10,000 crore that the Delhi government got it cleared in the state Cabinet.

The tussle between the state and the Centre reached a point that, in March, 2018, Union minister for housing and urban affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said the ministry would implement the project on its own “after failing to get the support and cooperation of Delhi government”. The Delhi government asked the Centre to go ahead with its plan but the DMRC later clarified that approvals of both governments were mandatory for Phase-IV works to take off.

First Published: Apr 02, 2019 07:20 IST