Why RInfra walked out of Delhi airport metro line project

Moneycontrol Bureau

Reliance Infra-led Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL) has refused to run the showcase 23-kilometres long metro rail line in the national capital from Monday citing financial non-viability.

The firm has also asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to take over the project.

In 2011. the DMRC had built the civil structure on the line and RInfra was in charge of taking care of operations and maintenance with the concession agreement of 30 years.

A few months after the line came into existence; things went sour between both parties on grounds that DMRC's construction was faulty on the line which claimed a run time of around 18 minutes from New Delhi Railway Station to Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

The express line was even shut for a few months in 2012 due to faulty civil construction work. In October, RInfra even  sent a contract termination notice to DMRC which disputed it and the matter is still being sorted out of court.

In the meanwhile, the DMRC rectified civil construction faults related to civil construction and the line resumed operations in January this year.

But RInfra has pulled out of the project since it felt arbitration proceedings or out of court settlement is at a standstill.

However, the DMRC has accused RInfra of violating concession agreement and has also said that the firm should not have walked out at a time when arbitration proceedings with a third party on the issue were already on.
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