DAMEPL issue: Senior officials of Delhi govt, Centre, DMRC meet to discuss way forward

A meeting to discuss the modalities on payment of the balance arbitral award to the Reliance Infrastructure-owned Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited was held on Thursday, official sources said.

Senior officials of the Centre, Delhi government, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and leading banks took part in the discussion. During the meeting held at Nirman Bhawan here, senior officials of the DMRC presented their financial status, they said.

Representatives of several banks, including many public sector undertakings (PSUs) also took part in the meeting, they said.

During the meeting, all the stakeholders discussed the way forward on the issue, and, the next meeting is expected to take place soon to discuss the future course of action, an official source said.

The Delhi High Court on October 31 had heard an application from the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), which said the DMRC has paid it only Rs 166.44 crore on March 14.

The DAMEPL had also sought direction to the corporation for a payment of Rs 4,427.41 crore by attachment of its bank accounts and fixed deposits. The interest continues to apply till the date of actual payment by the DMRC.

In September, the high court had granted four weeks to DMRC to make outstanding payment in relation to the arbitral award, failing which it would be ''constrained'' to call for the appearance of DMRC's managing director.

On March 10, the high court had directed the DMRC to pay the over Rs 4,600 crore arbitral award along with interest to DAMEPL in two equal installments within two months. The first and second installments were to be paid on or before April 30 and May 31, respectively.

The direction had come on DAMEPL's execution petition filed against the DMRC over the arbitral award passed in its favour on May 11, 2017.

An arbitral tribunal had ruled in favour of DAMEPL, which had pulled out from running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues, and accepted its claim that running the operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would pass. PTI KND SRY SRY