Delhi Metro Rail Corporation lays off 168 airport line employees

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which took over operations of the Airport Express line from Reliance Infra-promoted Delhi Airport Metro Express Line Private Limited (DAMEPL), has told 168 DAMEPL employees that their services won't be retained from August onwards.

The employees whose services have been terminated include the entire top brass.

“When we took over, DAMEPL had 393 employees on the roll. Of these, we have retained 225 at the lower management level. We are not retaining the senior management and security staff,” Sharat Sharma, director-operations, DMRC, told FE.

The 225 employees of DAMEPL have been absorbed by DMRC on contract basis.

“We couldn't retain the senior management as their salaries were higher than our existing team and there was no need to have a separate team for just one line when we already have a robust system in place for our 189-km route,” Sharma said.

It is still not clear whether Reliance Infra is going to absorb the 168 DAMEPL employees who'll be rendered jobless in a week in its other group companies.

A Reliance Infra spokesperson refused to comment.

Meanwhile, it is till not clear whether the DMRC will operate the Airport Express line permanently as the urban development ministry has not been able to take any call on the issue and is preparing to place the matter before the empowered group of ministers (EGOM).

DAMEPL has claimed a termination payment of about R2,800 crore from DMRC, saying it needs to be paid equivalent to 130% of equity and the entire remaining debt.

The arbitration panel — which is supposed to sort out the dispute between the DMRC and DAMEPL — has not yet started its hearing.

The DMRC has contested DAMEPL’s claim, saying the total debt of the Reliance Infra-promoted company is not more than R2,100 crore and since DAMEPL pulled out of the project, according to the contract, its total claim should be R1,680 crore (80% of the debt) and not R2,800 crore. 

Source:  http://www.financialexpress.com