The National Company Law Tribunal has finally disposed of the bankruptcy petition against Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL). Therefore, the way has been cleared for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to take over the Versova – Andheri – Ghatkopar Metro 1 route. MMRDA has guaranteed the repayment of MMOPL's loan and has also started the process of taking over the Metro 1 line.
The first metro line of MMRDA's 337 km metro project is 'Versova - Andheri - Ghatkopar Metro 1'. This route has been constructed by Reliance Infra i.e. MMOPL on a private-public partnership basis. MMOPL (Reliance Infra) has 74 percent share and MMRDA has 26 percent share. MMOPL is responsible for ownership and maintenance, operation of this route.
Meanwhile, this route has been in financial loss ever since it entered service. To cover this loss, MMOPL had decided to hike the ticket price. But this increase could not be done. So the loss is increasing. MMOPL decided to sell its stake and in 2020 had sent a letter in this regard to the state government. MMRDA then decided to buy this share. The process for this has been started and now the process has gained momentum.
A major hurdle in taking over the Metro 1 route was the bankruptcy petition against MMOPL. MMOPL has taken a loan of INR 1711 crore from six banks. This included loans taken from SBI and IDBI Bank. Both these banks had approached the National Company Law Tribunal and filed a petition against MMOPL. But now MMRDA has started the process of taking over the route and the bankruptcy petition against MMOPL was disposed of on Monday after repayment of INR 175 crore. Now the way for MMRDA to take over the Metro 1 line has been cleared.
Share
Tweet
