“Real estate revenues have in fact helped finance Delhi Metro since not only part of construction cost but also large part of operating costs are being funded out real estate revenues,”” the Commission said, pointing out that the DMRC model totally lacked transparency and accountability.

“¿it is neither accountable to the Central government/Parliament nor to the state government/ legislative assembly and follows neither Central government rules nor state government rules. Creating such organizations sans accountability and financing them from the public exchequer is open to serious questions and legitimate criticism,” the Commission said.

In his letter, Sreedharan had pointed out that Metro projects should not be left to the state government for planning and execution, as it would be difficult to achieve standardization and uniformity essential to reduce cost.