New Delhi, July
16:
The Delhi
airport metro express line — operated by Reliance Infrastructure — is unlikely
to restart operations before September. But the Ministry of Urban Development
has promised to make its best efforts to start the service by August end,
though unwilling to commit to a date. The Ministry is tight lipped on the estimated
cost of repair work.
REPAIR WORK TO
START
To fix
responsibility for sharing the cost of repair, the Ministry has formed another
Committee. The Urban Development Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, did not come to the
press conference here on Monday, leaving it to the Secretary to face the media.
The affected
construction area requires specific rehabilitation work, a joint inspection
team (JIT) formed to study the technical fault said in the report it submitted
today. After these faults are rectified, there will be another set of trial
runs on the line to get the green signal from the Commissioner of Metro Rail
Safety.
The JIT
committee had representatives from the Railway Ministry, Delhi Metro Rail
Corporation (DMRC), the firm which designed the structure (Systra), and
Reliance Infra. “The JIT studied 540 out of about 2000 bearings. They found
some shortcomings. They require specific rehabilitation measures. The design
firm – Systra – will undertake the rehabilitation work,” Dr Sudhir Krishna,
Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, said.
COST
Dr Krishna did
not reveal any details on the expected cost of repair work. “That we will get
to know only after the work is done,” he said. However, Dr Mangu Singh,
Managing Director, DMRC, said that the cost of bearings affected is Rs 87 lakh.
The repair work cost will be higher. The Urban Development Ministry has formed
another two-member committee, comprising Additional Member (Works) - Railways
and Additional Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, to fix responsibility
for this damage. A blame game is on between Reliance Infra and DMRC on owning
up responsibility for damage to the tracks. Reliance Infra’s CEO, Mr Sumit
Mukherjee, insists that the nature of damage is such that it had to be right
from the construction phase. Mr Mukherjee declined to comment on what was the
daily revenue from the metro line, though he said the company will claim
damages. “That DMRC is doing the repair work means they are admitting,” he
insisted.
PPP in METROS
Both the Urban
Development Ministry and Reliance Infra said that Reliance Infra had no plans
to desert the project. “We are all for PPP. We will try and ensure that the
financial viability is maintained,” Dr Krishna said when asked about the future
of PPP projects in metro rail.
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-logistics/article3647014.ece
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