RailEnquiry

New Delhi: Four months after it was suddenly shut down, the Delhi Airport Metro Express is expected to transport passengers to and from the Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-3. Delhi Metro today said it has rejected an offer by Reliance Infrastructure to quit the showcase Airport Metro Express citing financial non-viability of the country’s first Public-Private Partnership project and indicated that the corridor might be thrown open to public by Divali.Delhi Metro Rail Corporation managing director Mangu Singh said here at a press conference: "Most of the repair work on the Airport Metro Express line is over. We will now move on with acquiring safety clearances and finish all other related formalities. Most likely, the line will resume operations around Divali.”Singh also confirmed that Reliance Infrastructure-led concessionaire - Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL)-- for the line had served a notice two weeks ago to terminate its agreement with DMRC but it was rejected on Friday and being referred to arbitration.“The issues raised by DAMEPL regarding financial non-viability of the country’s first Public-Private Partnership project and also their request of re-structuring have been rejected by the DMRC. On request of DAMEPL the dispute is now being referred to arbitration. Similarly, the issue of termination of the concession agreement has been disputed and the same has also been referred for resolution through arbitration proceedings. However, Reliance Infrastructure maintained it will run the airport line services pending resolution of the disputes through arbitration.Ever since the line was commissioned in February 2011, after several months of delay that too on reduced speed, the footfalls or number of people utilising the line did not cross an average of 20,000 per day.The concessionaire resorted to slashing the fare by 50 per cent as an introductory offer, brought in baggage check-in facility for Air India passengers at the New Delhi and Shivaji Stadium stations, a and extended the service till midnight and increasing the duration to once every 15 minutes instead of 20 each minutes.