The Delhi Metro network carries lakhs of passengers a day across the national capital (File)
The Delhi government on Tuesday alleged that the centre has made some "unilateral changes" in the Delhi Metro Phase 4 project without communicating any reasons. In a statement, the Delhi transport department said, "If the Government of India was of the opinion that only three Priority Corridors were required to be considered in the first stage, it could have very well communicated to the Delhi government and in that case, the Delhi cabinet could also have approved only these three corridors."
In early March, three of the six proposed corridors got the union cabinet nod. These are Mukundpur-Maujpur (12.54 km), Janakpuri West-RK Ashram (28.92 km) and Tughlakabad-Aerocity (20.20 km).
"The Delhi government had approved all the six corridors proposed by the Delhi Metro in Phase-IV... However, the Government of India thereafter approved only three corridors out of the six approved by the Delhi Cabinet," the statement said.
"Once the project report has been approved by the Delhi government, the Government of India should not have unilaterally made any changes. A clear stand of the Delhi government is that the Government of India should also have approved all the six Corridors of Delhi Metro Phase-IV," it said.
These kind of "unilateral changes" by the Centre without either taking the Delhi government into confidence or even "without communicating any reasons for its change in stand, is not comprehensible", it said.
The component-wise cost has also been "revised" by the centre "unilaterally" without assigning any reasons or justification, the Delhi government alleged in the statement. "Equity component of the Delhi government has been increased from 8.08 per cent to 16.36 per cent," it claimed. "Similarly, the entire amount towards land acquisition has been apportioned to the Delhi government whereas in the earlier three phases, it was apportioned between Government of India and the Delhi government equally," it said.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs said the Delhi government's allegation that their share of expenditure for the three corridors approved by the centre is "more than its earlier proposal is baseless, false and derived on false assumptions".
"It appears to be another propaganda of the Delhi government to stall the Ph-IV project and deprive the people of Delhi from its benefits," the ministry said in a statement. "So far, no letter has been received from Delhi government on this matter. It has come to the notice only from the press reports that Delhi government has asked Delhi Metro to stop the work till the matter is cleared," the statement by the ministry said.