Delhi Airport Metro to suspend operations on safety concerns

Reliance Infrastructure to seek compensation for closure period starting today

New Delhi, July 7:

Reliance Infrastructure may seek compensation from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the period during which the Airport Metro services will be closed.

The Delhi Airport Metro Express Line — the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP) metro project operated by the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Infrastructure — will be closed from 5:30 a.m. on Sunday.

It has been decided to suspend the service after safety concerns were raised over the viaducts — part of the civil structure of the line — which are the responsibility of DMRC.

‘Temporary suspension’

There is no clarity on when the services will resume, with the company stating there will be a “temporary suspension”.

When contacted, a Reliance Infrastructure source said: “At present, our priority is to resume the service at the earliest. On compensation, we will obviously go by the concession agreement, which would definitely have such a clause.”

DMRC operates the Metro network, which has a peak daily ridership of 20 lakh passengers.

Operational for just over a year, the airport express line connects Central Delhi with the Indira Gandhi International Airport — operated by GMR Infra — in just 20 minutes. It charges a premium fare for the service. It has already clocked 8,800 hours of operation and carried 68 lakh passengers. It also offers baggage check-in services, like the metros in Hong Kong and London.

Reliance Infra is also implementing the Mumbai One metro project, where the company is responsible for both civil construction and coaching operation, along with Veolia Transport and Mumbai Metropolitan Development Authority — its partners in a special purpose vehicle.

This development, however, has rekindled the debate over what the implementation mode of Metro projects should be.

Dr E. Sreedharan, known as the ‘Metro Man’ after the Delhi Metro’s success story, has always been a vocal critic of PPPs in Metro rail operations, pointing out that most Metro systems require Government subsidy.

During the bidding for the Hyderabad Metro — being built on PPP mode — Dr Sreedharan had written to the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, against the manner of bidding. The Hyderabad Metro bid was first won by Maytas but was subsequently taken over by Larsen & Toubro following Maytas’ inability to implement the project.

In his book, Metro Rail Projects in India, former Urban Development Secretary Mr M Ramachandran cites examples of two Metro systems — in Kuala Lumpur, and one each in Bangkok and Manila — all of which were taken up with private funding. These projects came up without any time and cost overrun. But with lower-than-projected ridership, the Government took over the revenue risk in the Manila project and intervened in its restructuring .

“In the Asia Pacific region, India is perhaps the only country that is experimenting with a PPP model for the Metro,” Mr Jojo Alexander, Managing Director-Transport, Alstom, which will supply coaches to the under-construction Chennai Metro, had told Business Line.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-economy/article3614181.ece