Delhi Metro's Phase IV hits funding hurdle, Kejriwal govt seeks clarification about approvals

The Delhi government has raised objection with the Centre over the latter's approval of only three of the six metro phase-IV corridors and change in the ambitious project's funding pattern, an official said on Monday. "The government has sought clarification over the number of corridors approved by the Centre. The Delhi government had approved all the six corridors of the phase IV, while the Centre gave clearance to only three of them," a senior government official said.

"Even in the three corridors approved by the Centre, the funding pattern has been changed. So, clarification was sought how and why the number of approved corridors were reduced and funding pattern was changed," he said. The Aam Aadmi Party government has also sought clarity over the compensation to be paid for land acquisition, the official said.

The Centre had approved three corridors of phase IV at an estimated cost of Rs 24,948 crore. The share of the Centre and the Delhi government in it was pegged at Rs 4,154 crore each, while rest of the funding is to be done through support from lending agencies.

The Delhi government paid Rs 200 crore as balance amount of its share this year for the project and has sough clarification on the above points, the official said.

The AAP government had approved six corridors of the project last December. The Union housing and urban affairs ministry had objected to two conditions imposed by the Delhi government while clearing the project at its end. It had asked for sharing of operational losses with Centre at 50:50 basis, while refusing to have any commitment regarding loan to be taken for the project.

The three corridors cleared by the Centre are Aerocity-Tughlakabad (20.2 km), RK Ashram-Janakpuri West (28.9 km) and Maujpur-Mukundpur (12.5 km).

Apart from these, Rithala-Narela (21.72km), Inderlok-Indraprastha (12.58km), Lajpat Nagar-Saket G-block (7.96km) are the rest three corridors that have yet to be approved by the Centre.