MMRDA, Metro operator spar over land lease pact.

MMRDA and Mumbai Metro One, the Reliance Infrastructure-led operator of the Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar line are headed into arbitration over the signing of a lease agreement to cover the entire land on which the company has constructed.

The concession agreement signed between the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and the Mumbai Metro One Pvt Ltd. (MMOPL) calls for such a lease to be signed on mutually agreed terms.

The agreement also proposes to cover the excess area that the MMRDA has alleged that the MMOPL has built in the Metro car depot and at some stations, a senior official said. According to the authority, it had given permission to build up to 45,200 sq m in the car depot, but the the MMOPL has constructed 30,185 sq m of additional area.

Although the concession agreement calls for it, the lease agreement has not been signed until now. We have been discussing the issue and have sent the company a draft. We have given them sufficient time to sign it, but they haven't, so this issue too is likely to run into arbitration,' said a senior MMRDA official requesting anonymity.

The lease agreement will formalise handing over the land to MMOPL and put it within a framework of certain regulations. The official said the land would be leased to MMOPL till the end of the concession period at a certain cost. He, however, did not give details on the cost and other conditions of the draft agreement.

'The duration and the cost are not the points of disagreement. Their contention is that the provisions of the Metro Act be applied to even the lease agreement. This will effectively give them the right to develop the entire land given to them for the project the way they want,' he added


THE INDIAN EXPRESS