Firm threatens to end G’gram Metro service agreement

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 15

IL&FS Transportation Network Limited (ITNL) has threatened to terminate the contract for the Raid Metro project in Gurugram city if the state government does not comply with some conditions of the agreement by Monday.

The ITNL has sent a notice to the government and the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), accusing them of failing to comply with their part of commitments made in the concession agreement signed between the two sides for running the Metro services.

The Tribune has learnt that the ITNL in its notice cites failure on the part of the government to ensure minimum ridership, providing property development rights and proper advertisement of the Metro services etc as the reasons for the warning to terminate the agreement. Sources said that the government was yet to reply to the notice.

The Gurgaon Metro project, with two subsidiaries Gurgaon Rapid Metro and Gurgaon Rapid Metro South, provides interchange with the Delhi Metro’s Yellow Line at the Sikanderpur Metro Station.

The Rapid Metro has a total length of 11.6 km, serving 11 stations. It connects the commercial areas of Gurugram, and acts as a feeder link to the Delhi Metro.

The first route of 5.1 km starts from the Sikanderpur Metro Station and goes via Phase-II, Vodafone, Belvedere Towers, IndusInd Bank Cyber City, Micromax Moulsari Avenue and terminates at Phase-III.

The second route also starts from the Sikanderpur Metro Station and goes via DLF Phase-I, Sushant Lok, Sector 53-54, AIT Chowk up to Sectors 55 and 56.

Built and operated by Rapid Metro Gurgaon Limited (RMGL), the system is said to be the world’s first fully privately financed metro. Initially, the DLF-IL&FS consortium ran the RMGL.

The sources said that ever since the DLF withdrew from the project and ITNL’s parent company Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) ran into financial trouble, the ITNL has been finding it hard to run the Metro services. Meanwhile, the ITNL could not be reached for its comments.

A senior officer of the HSVP admitted that the ITNL had sent a notice to terminate the agreement to the government and its period expires on coming Monday.

“We have engaged a law firm for sending a detailed reply to the ITNL. The points mentioned by the ITNL in its notice as the reasons for the intended termination of the contract were not part of the concession agreement signed between the company and HUDA (renamed HSVP). It was the company that came forward with a proposal and we never guaranteed any particular volume of ridership or advertisement etc,” he said.