The Hindu : New Delhi News : Good news for Delhi Metro

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Wednesday, Apr 20, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Good news for Delhi Metro

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

DDA green signal for commercial use of land allotted to DMRC

NEW DELHI: After much persuasion and requests, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has finally been able to make both Delhi Development Authority and the Land and Development Office see reason in its demand that it be allowed commercial use of the land allotted to it to subsidise the operations and keep them affordable for the masses.

The Managing Director of DMRC. E. Sreedharan, said there was no conflict now and all the commercial projects were on the path to progress. "Our commercial projects had not been stalled, only delayed,'' he said, adding that now things were moving in the right direction.

The progress has now come as the Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development, Anil Baijal, under whom all the three departments come, was seized of the matter and had taken personal initiative in this direction by even instructing the Finance Department of the Ministry to speed up clearance of DMRC's commercial ventures. For the past couple of years, the DMRC was finding it difficult to move forward on the commercial projects as private developers wanted a clear title to the land and conditions for allotment clearly stated that land was being given only for construction of Metro. The DDA and L&DO have now started giving DMRC the required permissions for commercial projects.

Only last month at its budget meeting, DDA approved the change of land use for the DMRC Project in Vishwavidyalaya (Delhi University) area from `Public and Semi-Public' facility to `Residential' for a plot measuring 3.05 hectares and from `Residential' to `Commercial' for a plot measuring 0.77 hectares. DDA's approval for this residential and commercial development has come as a shot in the arm for DMRC as it has paved the way for similar clearances. Since all of them had been getting delayed due to the same legal clause pertaining to the right of DMRC to exploit its lands commercially, the decision of the Authority is expected to set the tone for similar approvals for other projects as well. And considering that around 6 per cent of the total project cost of Delhi Metro is to be raised through property development by generating around Rs 600 crores by the end to 2005, it seems DMRC is now well-placed to realise its targets.

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