The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) will soon decide on roping in a new concessionaire to run the Airport Express line, Sharat Sharma, director (operations), said on Monday. Sharma said the business was incurring losses of R4 crore a day given that the expenses, at R7 crore, were higher than the revenues of R3 crore. He declined to comment on whether passenger fares would be increased.
Last week, the Reliance Infrastructure-led Delhi Airport Metro Express (DAMEPL) served a termination notice on DMRC, saying it would not run the service after June 30. An RInfra executive said there were defects in the line. Incidentally, in January this year, RInfra had informed the BSE that the airport metro line would resume commercial operations from January 22, 2013. This was following the suspension of operations in July last year due to defects found in the civil structures. RInfra said the defects had since been rectified by DMRC and the line offered for re-inspection to the Commissioner Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) in December 2012. ?The line was inspected by CMRS on January 15-16, 2013, and a formal clearance for commercial operation was received on January 18,? the statement on January 21 said.
However, DAMEPL has claimed a termination payment from DMRC equal to 130% of the adjusted equity and 100% of the debt due for the project, as it says the termination has arisen owing to DMRC?s ?event of default?. In a statement, RInfra said DAMEPL had first terminated the concession agreement with DMRC for the Delhi airport metro line nearly nine months back, through a notice dated October 8, 2012.
?The termination clause had to be invoked by DAMEPL, as DMRC had persistently failed to cure the substantial defects in the civil structure designed and built by DMRC, within the period prescribed under the concession agreement?. This, RInfra said, resulted in ?material breach and event of default? by DMRC under the agreement?.
Currently an estimated 11,000 people use the service every day, said a senior urban development ministry official quoting the figures submitted by RInfra. ?The employees will be retailed for a month and only thereafter would a decision be taken on them,? said DMRC?s Sharma.
