Title - Business Line : News : Delhi metro: Team may visit Chile to understand airport line problems

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 2:  For a better understanding of the problems due to which the Delhi airport metro line had to be stopped, the Government is considering a proposal to send officials to Chile to study the systems there.

Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath today said a proposal to send officials who were looking into the defects in the airport metro line, to Chile was being considered but added that a final decision was yet to be taken.

“It is not final yet but it is an idea that how did the things which happened there, happened, it should be seen. The report is not ready yet, I think it’ll be ready in a month’s time,” he said.

The Airport Metro was closed by operator Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Ltd on July 8 this year following defects in the structure of the line. The Urban Development Ministry had then stepped in to supervise the repair operations.

The Ministry had also constituted a two-member committee comprising A. K. Gupta, Additional Member (Works) in the Railway Board and Additional Secretary D. Diptivilasa, to look in to the various aspects related to the construction and functioning of the Airport metro line.

The country’s first public-private-partnership metro project had first begun operations in February 2011.

In response to another question, Nath that the JNNURM II, which is his Ministry’s flagship scheme to develop urban infrastructure, would have a budget of Rs 60,000 crore to Rs 70,000 crore in the Twelfth Plan but added that this amount could be increased.