NEW DELHI: Delhi Metro has produced six hundred crore revenue from the commercial use of its property during the first phase of the Metro project.

The real revenue generation is approximately double the target, thanks to skyrocketing commercial property prices and growing demand from retail sector and IT companies. Buoyed by the excellent response, DMRC officials expect that total revenue from property development would reach Rs 1,000 crore in a few years.
Earnings from commercial use of vacant land constitute around 30% of the total operating revenues generated by DMRC. In 2007-08, the company reported total operating revenue of Rs 327 crore, a 28% increase from Rs 256 crore in 2006-07.
“The revenue generated from the property development in the first phase of the metro project will contribute to our internal accruals, which will be used to finance the next phase of the Metro project. Still, there are some unoccupied areas that can be commercially used under the phase-I and we expect the total earnings from such commercial activity to reach Rs 1,000 crore. In the second phase, similar property development will be undertaken and we have targeted a revenue generation of Rs 405 crore from the same,” said a source.
Property development undertaken so far includes 6-12-year licence awarded for the spaces within station buildings for commercial related vendors such as ATMs, kiosks, refreshment and magazine stalls. Similarly, shopping malls have also been set up through developers on a license basis for the period of 12 years inside station buildings which have larger concourses.
Such malls have already come up at Inderlok, Netaji Subhash Place and Kashmere gate stations. DMRC has set up an IT park at Shastri park station which has been rented out to ITES operators. The company has undertaken some residential and commercial developments outside Shahdara and Inderlok stations through developers on a concession period of 30 years.