The face-off between Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC) and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) that has left 75 acres of prime property across the capital idle and developers stranded, comes after a series of Government orders that, DMRC officials say, clearly gave them the mandate that the MCD is objecting to.

Over a decade, as DMRC worked on Phase 1 of the Metro, it acquired about 340 hectares, of which 58% was government land, 39% agricultural land and 3 per cent private urban land. As the red, blue and yellow lines started dotting the city’s landscape, the MCD was kept informed that DMRC would develop the “surplus” prime property in the city along its routes — the same land where work is now stalled. And for which the MCD is waving a Rs 452-crore property tax bill it wants the DMRC to pay.

Consider the following:

• 1996: DMRC’s financial plan was cleared by the Centre under which DMRC could develop property to generate up to 6 per cent of its revenue.

• July 2003: MCD received a letter from Urban Development Ministry that the Cabinet, while “approving the proposal for implementation of the Delhi MRTS Project had also given its approval to permit the company (DMRC) to generate resources through property development” for 20 years.

• July 2005: DMRC says that at a meeting chaired by then Chief Secretary S. Reghunathan, it was decided that Metro does not have to pay MCD any property tax. MCD says there’s nothing in writing.

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