Title - Reliance Infrastructure hits back, claims DMRC put commuters at risk

NEW DELHI: Days after being accused of trying to wriggle out of the Airport Metro Express line deal, concessionaire Reliance Infrastructure hit back at the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, saying the corporation was endangering the lives of commuters.The accusation came in a scathing letter to urban development minister Kamal Nath, a copy of which has been sent to the PMO - clearly in response to DMRC chief Mangu Singh's letter to Nath, reported by TOI, which castigated R-Infra for trying to bail out of the project.In his letter, Sumit Banerjee, CEO of R-Infra, writes that "safety and operational economics cannot be bracketed together". Denying allegations that economic considerations had prompted the concessionaire to shut down services on the high speed Metro line, Banerjee accuses DMRC of playing with safety concerns."We have restrained ourselves so far from disclosing that DMRC had given us in writing that the Metro corridor (with severe civil structure defects) was safe to continue to run trains, and it is actually DMRC who tried to force us to take undue risks to life and property," says the letter, a copy which is with TOI."Contractually, there is not an iota of doubt that DMRC (and more specifically the director-works) is accountable to us (the concessionaire) and more significantly to DMRC's stakeholders and the citizens of Delhi, for this shoddy quality of execution," he says.

Since the defects were first detected, sections in R-Infra have been pointing to the fact that the director (works) in DMRC at the time of the project's execution was Mangu Singh, the current Metro chief.

Reliance Infrastructure CEO Sumit Banerjee has accused DMRC of "painting a collective decision of suspension of train services in a motivated colour". In a letter to urban development minister Kamal Nath, Banerjee has also accused Delhi Metro of "falsification" and said that the record needs to be set straight for accountability.

Claiming that the "approach of DMRC is not collaborative and not conducive to deal with the current crisis", Banerjee says the corporation is trying to shift responsibility for the defects to contractors and sub-contractors like RITES.

The letter comes even as stakeholders of the Airport Metro Express are scheduled to meet on Monday. The meeting is expected to be tumultuous with both DMRC and R-Infra in a mood to trade charges even as the joint inspection committee under the expertise of the railways submits its report.

Sources admitted that the blame game could mean further delay in opening of the line.