NEW DELHI: The Delhi Metro Railways Corporation (DMRC) has invited bids from 18 banks to raise a loan to the tune of Rs 2,700 crore owed to the Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) in compliance with a Supreme Court order over an arbitral award settlement.
The loan will be used for the ‘purchase of Airport Line assets’ prior to the debt payoff to DAMEPL, an arm of Reliance Infra –according to letters sent to the 18 banks by the urban transporter. This comes in the backdrop of the Supreme Court ruling in early May upholding a Delhi High Court order directing the DMRC to pay over Rs 4,600 crore of the arbitral award along with interest to the DAMEPL in two equal instalments in two months.
The Airport Express line, connecting New Delhi station and city airport was commissioned in February 2011, after an investment of over Rs 2,885 crore, funded by the DAMEPL's promoters' fund, banks, and financial institutions.
DMRC had built the civil infrastructure while DAMEPL had brought in the rolling stock. The high court's judgment had come on DAMEPL's execution petition filed against DMRC concerning the arbitral award in its favour. According to the new letter dated May 19, sent to 18 major banks, ''DMRC proposes to raise a loan to the tune of Rs 2,700 crores for purchase of Airport Line assets''.