DMRC to deposit Rs 600 Cr for DAMEPL in escrow account in two days HC told
New Delhi Feb 21 PTI The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Monday assured the Delhi High Court that it will deposit Rs 600 crore within two days in an escrow account for Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited DAMEPL which had initiated execution proceedings against DMRC concerning an arbitral award of over Rs 4600 crore in its favourJustice Suresh Kumar Kait took on record the statement made by DMRCs counsel and reserved the order on the execution petitionSenior advocate Parag Tripathi representing DMRC initially submitted that the corporation will pay Rs 600 crore in 72 hours and urged the court to grant some time to it to approach banks for taking the loan for paying the arbitral award amountHe said the money received by it from governmental agencies is for the completion of metro projects and the amount cannot be used by DMRC for paying the arbitral award amountI have money in my account but it is earmarked for a project and it is not my money I do not have to power to dispose of this money Tripathi submitted on behalf of DMRC The court however asked the DMRC to deposit Rs 600 crore within two days and the counsel appearing for it agreed Meanwhile senior advocate Ramji Srinivasan appearing for certain banks said they are lenders to the project and they need their money irrespective of the fact that it is paid by DMRC or DAMEPLHe urged the court to ensure that the money received shall not be disbursed outside and be given to the lendersHe said the outstanding amount to the lenders was more than Rs 9000 crores when the amount which has to come from the present proceedings is about Rs 6000 croreDAMEPL was represented by senior advocate Rakesh Kumar KhannaIn an earlier affidavit DMRC has stated that as of February 14 it has a total of Rs 569425 crore as funds which include Rs 145210 crore as DMRC funds and Rs 268129 has project funds The court had earlier directed DMRC to give details of its funds and balance sheetOn January 24 the Supreme Court had asked DMRC and DAMEPL to request the high court to hear the dispute relating to the execution of the arbitral award saying that any further delay is detrimental to the interest of both the partiesLast year DMRC had told the court that since the corporation was facing a financial crunch undertaking a sudden liability would impact public interest and authorities were therefore working out a solutionIt had said that it would deposit Rs 1000 crore in favour of DAMEPL in an escrow account and suggested taking over the debt of the Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary to the extent of the award money saying that it would be a better position to negotiate with the lender banksThe offer however was turned down by DAMEPL and the court had observed that if the decree-holder did not want to accept the proposal it could not be forced to do soThe high court had earlier pulled up DAMEPL for playing hide and seek with the court and holding out-of-court communications with DMRC to settle the dispute relating to the execution of the over Rs 4600 crore arbitral award passed against the PSUAn arbitral tribunal in its May 2017 award had ruled in favour of DAMEPL which had pulled out from running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues and accepted its claim that the running of operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would runThe arbitral award pertained to a concession agreement between the two entities which was signed on August 25 2008 Under the agreement DMRC was to carry out the civil works excluding at the depot and the balance including the project system works were to be executed by DAMEPL a joint venture of Rinfra and a Spanish construction company — Construcciones Y Auxiliar De Ferrocarriles — with a shareholding of 95 and five per cent respectivelyDAMEPL had borrowed from 11 banks — Axis Bank UCO Bank Punjab and Sind Bank Andhra Bank Central Bank of India Dena Bank Allahabad Bank Canara Bank Bank of India IIFC UK and Canara Bank London — to carry out operations on the lineThe Airport Express line was commissioned on February 23 2011 after an investment of over Rs 2885 crore funded by the DAMEPLs promoters fund banks and financial institutions PTI SKV SKV RKS RKS
New Delhi Feb 21 PTI The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Monday assured the Delhi High Court that it will deposit Rs 600 crore within two days in an escrow account for Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited DAMEPL which had initiated execution proceedings against DMRC concerning an arbitral award of over Rs 4600 crore in its favourJustice Suresh Kumar Kait took on record the statement made by DMRCs counsel and reserved the order on the execution petitionSenior advocate Parag Tripathi representing DMRC initially submitted that the corporation will pay Rs 600 crore in 72 hours and urged the court to grant some time to it to approach banks for taking the loan for paying the arbitral award amountHe said the money received by it from governmental agencies is for the completion of metro projects and the amount cannot be used by DMRC for paying the arbitral award amountI have money in my account but it is earmarked for a project and it is not my money I do not have to power to dispose of this money Tripathi submitted on behalf of DMRC The court however asked the DMRC to deposit Rs 600 crore within two days and the counsel appearing for it agreed Meanwhile senior advocate Ramji Srinivasan appearing for certain banks said they are lenders to the project and they need their money irrespective of the fact that it is paid by DMRC or DAMEPLHe urged the court to ensure that the money received shall not be disbursed outside and be given to the lendersHe said the outstanding amount to the lenders was more than Rs 9000 crores when the amount which has to come from the present proceedings is about Rs 6000 croreDAMEPL was represented by senior advocate Rakesh Kumar KhannaIn an earlier affidavit DMRC has stated that as of February 14 it has a total of Rs 569425 crore as funds which include Rs 145210 crore as DMRC funds and Rs 268129 has project funds The court had earlier directed DMRC to give details of its funds and balance sheetOn January 24 the Supreme Court had asked DMRC and DAMEPL to request the high court to hear the dispute relating to the execution of the arbitral award saying that any further delay is detrimental to the interest of both the partiesLast year DMRC had told the court that since the corporation was facing a financial crunch undertaking a sudden liability would impact public interest and authorities were therefore working out a solutionIt had said that it would deposit Rs 1000 crore in favour of DAMEPL in an escrow account and suggested taking over the debt of the Reliance Infrastructure subsidiary to the extent of the award money saying that it would be a better position to negotiate with the lender banksThe offer however was turned down by DAMEPL and the court had observed that if the decree-holder did not want to accept the proposal it could not be forced to do soThe high court had earlier pulled up DAMEPL for playing hide and seek with the court and holding out-of-court communications with DMRC to settle the dispute relating to the execution of the over Rs 4600 crore arbitral award passed against the PSUAn arbitral tribunal in its May 2017 award had ruled in favour of DAMEPL which had pulled out from running the Airport Express metro line over safety issues and accepted its claim that the running of operations on the line was not viable due to structural defects in the viaduct through which the train would runThe arbitral award pertained to a concession agreement between the two entities which was signed on August 25 2008 Under the agreement DMRC was to carry out the civil works excluding at the depot and the balance including the project system works were to be executed by DAMEPL a joint venture of Rinfra and a Spanish construction company — Construcciones Y Auxiliar De Ferrocarriles — with a shareholding of 95 and five per cent respectivelyDAMEPL had borrowed from 11 banks — Axis Bank UCO Bank Punjab and Sind Bank Andhra Bank Central Bank of India Dena Bank Allahabad Bank Canara Bank Bank of India IIFC UK and Canara Bank London — to carry out operations on the lineThe Airport Express line was commissioned on February 23 2011 after an investment of over Rs 2885 crore funded by the DAMEPLs promoters fund banks and financial institutions PTI SKV SKV RKS RKS
