DMRC's Rithala-Bawana-Narela corridor will be approved in next few months: Puri

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday indicated that the Rithala-Bawana-Narela corridor of the Delhi Metro proposed under its Phase-IV project should be able to get the government approval "very quickly in the next few months".

The Union Cabinet had in March approved three of the six corridors of the Phase-IV approved by the AAP dispensation, sidelining the conditions imposed by the Delhi government while giving its nod to all six corridors.

In his address at a conference on DDA's landpooling policy here, Puri said connectivity is an issue as far as this policy's execution is concerned, but as an Urban Affairs minister, "the metros also come under me, and I had a discussion on it before this meeting".

"I am very happy to share and... and I am confident that connectivity to those parts of the city, and I have Narela in mind for instance, one of the three corridors not covered by Phase-IV approval, will improve," he said.

"We had some difficulty and hiccups with you know who, who shall remain nameless today. We had cleared three of the six corridors under Phase-4. And, Narela corridor I am told, not covered earlier, should be able to get the approval very quickly in the next few months," the minister said, without naming anyone.

The 103.94 km long phase-IV of Delhi metro will consist of six corridors -- Aerocity to Tughlakabad; Inderlok to Indraprastha; Lajpat Nagar to Saket G Block; Mukundpur to Maujpur; Janakpuri West to R K Ashram and Rithala-Bawana-Narela.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs had on March 9 approved the 61.66 km, three priority corridors -- Aerocity to Tughlakabad, R K Ashram to Janakpuri (West) and Mukundpur to Maujpur -- at a cost of Rs 24,948.65 crore.

After much delay, the AAP government in December 2018 had approved all the six corridors of the project.

While approving the Phase-IV project, the Delhi Cabinet had imposed two conditions -- 50-50 sharing of operational loss between the Delhi government and the Centre, and that the Delhi government will not bear any liability of repayment of loan given by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation had been at loggerheads before the approval by the Delhi government.

"If we can get that approval done (for Narela corridor), landpooling now being implemented... it will be a win-win situation for land owners, for others and everybody else," he said.