Centre supports PPP model in Delhi Metro's phase 4 project: Puri

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is the standard model and the Centre supports it, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today after the Delhi Metro sent a proposal to the AAP and the Union governments asking them to involve private entities for running trains under its phase four project.

In January, the DMRC had written to both the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi, seeking approval for allowing private players to run trains in at least three of the six proposed corridors.

Both the Centre and the Delhi government have a 50 per cent stake in the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

 

"PPP model is a national model. There is no other model," Puri told PTI on the sidelines of an event here.

Asked whether the central government would support this model in phase four of the Delhi Metro, the Union housing and urban affairs minister said, "Why not. The Centre is doing so everywhere. We had also implemented PPP model in Hyderabad (metro) too."

On being asked about public-private partnership model not succeeding in the Airport Metro section in Delhi, Puri said, "It is a different thing if there is problem in some individual projects. Otherwise, PPP is the standard model."

According to a DMRC official, under public-private partnership model, private entities can run trains while tracks would be laid by the DMRC.

Given an example of Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS), the official said private entities can be paid on the lines of DIMTS which operates buses of private players and pay them on kilometre basis.

The phase four project of the Delhi Metro, which would add round 70 stations to the network, is still pending with the Delhi government even after it had given in-principal approval to it in February 2016.

Under this proposed project, a total of 31.47 kilometres of new lines will be underground while 64.39 km tracks would be elevated.

Among the projects chosen under Phase-IV are Rithala-Narela (21.73km), Janakpuri West-R K Ashram (28.92km), Mukundpur-Maujpur (12.54km), Inderlok-Indraprastha (12.58km), Tughlakabad-Aerocity (20.20 km), and Lajpat Nagar-Saket G-Block (7.96 km).