New Delhi: The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on 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 4,600 crore in its favour.
Justice Suresh Kumar Kait took on record the statement made by DMRC's counsel and reserved the order on the execution petition.
Senior 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 amount.
He 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 amount.
"I 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 DAMEPL.
He urged the court to ensure that the money received shall not be disbursed outside and be given to the lenders.
He said the outstanding amount to the lenders was more than Rs 9,000 crores when the amount which has to come from the present proceedings is about Rs 6,000 crore. DAMEPL was represented by senior advocate Rakesh Kumar Khanna.
In an earlier affidavit, DMRC has stated that as of February 14, it has a total of Rs 5,694.25 crore as funds which include Rs 1,452.10 crore as DMRC funds and Rs 2,681.29 has project funds.
The court had earlier directed DMRC to give details of its funds and balance sheet.
On 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 parties.
Last 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 solution.