New Delhi : The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to pay within four weeks Rs 3,502.62 crore in favour of Reliance Infrastructure’s (Rinfra) subsidiary which was operating the airport express line here earlier.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva dismissed the DMRC’s plea against the Arbitral Tribunal’s May 2017 order asking it to make payments to Reliance Infra’s subsidiary, Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL), in the case related to the airport express premium corridor. The high court allowed a separate plea of DAMEPL, the former concessionaire of the airport express line, for early payment of 75 per cent of the arbitral award in its favour. DAMEPL had sought direction to the DMRC to deposit with the court Rs 3502.62 crore, which is 75 per cent of the total arbitral award of Rs 4,670 crore.
It had also sought to release the deposited amount to project lenders and promoters. DAMEPL had appealed for early payment of the award, claiming it was paying Rs 65 lakh per day to its lenders, comprising public and other banks, since the termination of its agreement with the DMRC to run the Airport Metro line.
Allowing their plea, the high court said, “DAMEPL has sought direction for release of the deposited amount to the project lenders and promoters who had financed the project.”
A Rinfra spokesperson said, “Now that the Delhi High Court has upheld the award by the arbitration tribunal, we expect the compensation to be paid expeditiously, which we shall utilise to retire the outstanding debt of Rinfra and DAMEPL.”
The concessionaire had contended in court that it had been paying Rs 18-20 crore a month since July 2013 for servicing the debt and had already shelled out over Rs 1,070 crore towards payment of interest with the initial capital remaining outstanding.
