Sisodia slams Centre over Delhi Metro Phase IV funds

New Delhi, Feb 2 (IANS) Delhi Finance Minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday slammed the Central government for not allocating any funds for the Metro Phase IV project in the city.

Sisodia said that the cost of phase IV project came down by Rs 10,000 crore after the Delhi government's intervention.

He also said that the Delhi government had committed 50 per cent of the cost and yet the Central government did not allocate any money for the project.

"Metro phase IV is important for Delhi. We did a detailed study of the project, in which we pointed out that Rs 10,000 crore can be saved, despite being blamed by BJP leaders that we are not clearing the files.

"I felt very sad that the Central government has completely ignored Delhi in its Budget. The Centre has forgotten about the Metro phase IV," Sisodia told the media.

He also said that the Central government wanted the Delhi government to bear the running losses while the profit was to be shared between Delhi and Central government.

"Considering the loss liability, we had even offered to take over the Metro operation," he said.

The Phase IV project had become a bone of contention between the AAP government and the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government as the former did not give its final nod to the project, even after its in-principle approval of the same in February 2016.

Among the projects chosen under Phase IV are: Rithala-Bawana-Narela (21.73 km, elavated), Janakpuri West-RK Ashram (28.92 km, 21.18-km elevated), Mukundpur-Maujpur (12.54 km, elevated), Inderlok-Indraprastha (12.58 km, underground), Aero City-Tughlakabad (20.2 km, 5.58-km elevated), Lajpat Nagar-Saket G Block (7.96 km, 5.89-km elevated).