Reliance Infra finalises contracts for Delhi Metro rail link
| CAF, Siemens, Faiveley among key suppliers. |
"We will procure eight trains, each comprising six coaches, from CAF. The deliveries will start from January 2010. All the coaches will be manufactured in CAF's factories in Spain."
Mamuni Das
New Delhi, March 29 Reliance Infrastructure, an ADAG company, has finalised most of its contracts for the metro rail link between Delhi international airport and city centre.
The Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd (DAMEPL) — a special purpose vehicle where Reliance Infrastructure has a 95 per cent equity stake and Spanish firm CAF owns the rest — has won the 30-year concession to design, build, finance, operate and maintain the 22.7 km rail link. The facility will be transferred back to DMRC at the end of the concession period.
ORDERSThe company will get the coaches, which are in standard gauge, from Spanish rolling stock firm CAF, which also has an equity stake in the project.
"We will procure eight trains, each comprising six coaches, from CAF. The deliveries will start from January 2010. All the coaches will be manufactured in CAF's factories in Spain," a top Reliance Infra official in charge of the metro projects told Business Line. CAF is responsible for the maintenance of coaches for seven years.
The equipment for signalling, power supply and baggage handling will be sourced from Siemens, Germany and its Indian subsidiary.
Orders for the platform screens have been placed with Faiveley; automatic fare collection machines will be sourced from the Spanish firm, Indra; ETA will supply the tunnel ventilation equipment; Kone will supply the lifts and Schindler will supply the escalators, and check-in equipment. Alcatel will provide the communication equipment such as fibre optics, passenger information system, CCTV and master-clock. He declined to share details on the value and size of orders.
FINANCIAL CLOSURE The company recently signed the financing agreements for long-term loans from financial institutions and a sanction of around Rs 2,500 crore against a total debt requirement of Rs 2,020 crore has been achieved, Mr K.P. Maheshwari, Project Director, had stated in a release.
For DAMEPL, the cost of funds is 225 basis points below the Axis Bank's prime lending rate. The funds have a door-to-door tenor of 17.5 years. "We will have a 14.5 year repayment period with a ballooning repayment schedule. It is staggered in such a way that the repayment increases towards the end of the period," said the official.
The transaction led by Axis Bank (Rs 330 crore), also had subscribers such as India Infrastructure Finance Company (UK) Ltd ($54 million), Bank of India (Rs 200 crore), Canara Bank (Rs 200 crore), Central Bank of India (Rs 200 crore), Andhra Bank (Rs 100 crore), Allahabad Bank (Rs 150 crore), Dena Bank (Rs 200 crore), Punjab and Sind Bank (Rs 150 crore), and UCO Bank (Rs 225.5 crore).
For DAMEPL, the project will entail an investment of Rs 2,885 crore with debt-equity ratio of 70:30. The metro rail link has to be operational by July 2010, before the Commonwealth Games