In what could escalate the tussle between AAP dispensation and the Centre over DMRC’s Phase-IV project, the Delhi government on Tuesday alleged that the Union government has made some “unilateral changes” in the project, without communicating any reasons.
In a statement, the Delhi Transport Department said, “If the Central government was of the opinion that only three ‘Priority Corridors’ were required to be considered in the first stage, it could have very well communicated to the Delhi government and in that case, the DelhiCcabinet could also have approved only these three corridors.”
In early March, three of the six proposed corridors, got the Union Cabinet nod. These are: Mukundpur-Maujpur, Janakpuri West-RK Ashram and Tughlakabad-Aerocity.
“The Delhi government had approved all the six corridors proposed by the Delhi Metro in Phase-IV... However, the Centre thereafter approved only three corridors out of the six approved by the Delhi Cabinet. Once the project report has been approved by the Delhi government, the Central government should not have unilaterally made any changes. A clear stand of the Delhi government is that the Centre should also have approved all the six corridors of Delhi Metro Phase-IV,” the statement said.
These kind of “unilateral changes” by the Centre without either taking the Delhi government into confidence or even “without communicating any reasons for its change in stand, is not comprehensible”, it said. Secondly, the component-wise cost has also been “revised” by the Centre “unilaterally” without assigning any reasons or justification, the Delhi government alleged in the statement. “Equity component of the Delhi government has been increased from 8.08% to 16.36%. Similarly, the entire amount towards land acquisition has been apportioned to the Delhi government ,” it said.
Meanwhile, amid a report that Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot had directed his department to tell the DMRC not to start work on Phase-IV until it got further clarifications on the project’s funding, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said, the Delhi government’s allegation that their share of expenditure for the three corridors approved by the Centre is “more than its earlier proposal is baseless, false and derived on false assumptions”.