The Hindu : New Delhi News : Financial aspects of new Metro line yet to be worked out

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Friday, Jan 13, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Financial aspects of new Metro line yet to be worked out

Staff Reporter

Rail corridor from IGI Airport to New Delhi railway station via Connaught Place

NEW DELHI: Though the Union Ministry of Home Affairs has given the go-ahead for the 21-km Metro rail corridor from Indira Gandhi International Airport to New Delhi railway station via Connaught Place, even the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is still not very clear what shape this line would ultimately take.

A senior DMRC official said on Thursday that while RITES is conducting a feasibility study and the Detailed Project Report for the line is expected to be completed within a month, the financial aspects of the project are yet to be worked out. "The study has been initiated at the behest of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation which wanted a direct connectivity from the airport to the city centre. The Ministry is expecting air passenger volumes to go up to around 4 lakh by the time this line comes up ahead of the Commonwealth Games 2010.'' However, thus far there is no financial commitment for the project. The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which financed Phase I of the Delhi Metro project, is not in the picture and neither has the participation of Delhi Government and the Centre on an equal basis been confirmed.

So far, the official said, this new line is only a baby of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. "But neither have they said that they would fully finance it nor that they would bear all the operational and maintenance costs in the future as well.'' Since it would pass through or by some of the most sensitive areas of the Capital such as New Delhi railway station, Rajiv Chowk, President's Estate, Chanakyapuri, Moti Bagh and Basant Gaon before reaching the domestic and international terminals of the airport, the line would primarily be underground and as such the cost of the 21-km corridor is expected to be around Rs. 6,000 crores.

Though the line is expected to be constructed under the modernisation plan of Delhi airport, the mechanism for sharing the operational and maintenance costs -- which for underground air-conditioned sections are twice as expensive as the elevated ones -- is yet to be worked out.But if the Ministry of Civil Aviation would bear the entire burden on its shoulders, then the line would provide check-in facility to passengers at the stations. "They will be able to check in their luggage and travel by the Metro to the airport. The coaches will also be specially designed and will be in the form of chair cars. With just about six stations along the entire route, the journey time would be just around 15 minutes.''

However, as the airport passenger volumes at present are only about 30,000, the DMRC wants normal passengers also to use the line to recover the operational and construction costs more effectively. "As the line needs a depot facility and for that it would have to go to Najafgarh, we would like to connect it to the Line III so that regular passengers are also able to use it,'' said the official.

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