HC stays disclosure of Zamrudpur Metro pillar design

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has stayed the execution of Central Information Commission's order directing the DMRC to disclose the design of the pillar at Zamrudpur which collapsed last year killing six people.

The Commission in its full bench order on March 18 had directed the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to make public all the structural drawings related to pillar in larger public interest.

The Corporation had challenged the order before Delhi High Court which stayed the decision of the transparency panel.

An architect Sudhir Vohra had sought all details of both the pile foundation and the superstructure, including all steel reinforcement details, foundation details, engineering calculations and soil tests for the cantilevered bracket of metro pillar number 67 on the upcoming Central Secretariat-Badarpur line.

The DMRC refused to share any details saying it holds the IPR of the designs and other details and their disclosure would affect the commercial interest of the company which makes it.

It also cited issues of safety and security saying disclosure of design specifications to the general public as well as to the RTI applicant would directly affect the safety and security of the Metro Rail system.

"The DMRC has also been approached by various countries around the world, to provide them the consultancy services as well as to set out the design parameters or the standards with respect to the implementation or the development of the Metro Rail Projects in such countries... any disclosure of the structural design would thus cause irreparable loss to the DMRC," it said.

Rejecting the arguments of Delhi Metro that the designs of the faulty pillars cannot be shared as they come under the Intellectual Property Rights of the Corporation, a full bench of the Commission said the disclosure was necessary in "larger public interest."

A cantilevered bracket of Metro pillar number 67 collapsed near South Delhi's Lajpat Nagar area killing six and injuring more than 15 people in July last year.

The Delhi Metro had attributed the accident to a "problem in the design" of the pillar claiming they "were trying to rectify it."