1. Short title, commencement and application.—(1) This Act may be called the Metro Railways
(Construction of Works) Act, 1978.
(2) It shall come into force on such date1
as the Central Government may, by notification in the
Official Gazette, appoint.
(3) It applies in the first instance to the metropolitan city of Calcutta; and the Central Government
may, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare that this Act shall also apply to 2
[the National Capital
Region, such other metropolitan city and metropolitan area, after consultation with the State Government,
and with effect from such date as may be specified in that notification and thereupon the provisions of
this Act shall apply to the National Capital Region, such metropolitan city or metropolitan area
accordingly.]
2. Definitions.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “Advisory Board” means the Advisory Board constituted under section 4;
(b) 3
[“appellate authority”] means the appellate authority appointed under section 16;
(c) “building” means a house, outhouse, stable, latrine, urinal, shed, hut or wall or any other
structure or erection, whether of masonry bricks, wood, mud, metal or any other material or any part
of a building, but does not include a plant or machinery installed in a building or any part thereof or
any portable shelter;
(d) “commissioner” means a commissioner of metro railway appointed under section 27;
4
[(e) “competent authority” means the competent authority appointed under section 16;]
(f) “development” with its grammatical variations means the carrying out of building,
engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land or the making of any material
change in any building or land or planting of any tree on land and includes redevelopment;
(g) “land” includes any right or interest in land;
(h) “metro alignment”, in relation to any 5
[metropolitan city, metropolitan area and the National
Capital Region] means such alignment of the metro railway as is specified in the Schedule under that
city and includes the metro railway;
6
[(ha) “metropolitan area” shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (c) of article 243P of
the Constitution;]
1. 1st February, 1979, vide notification No. S.O. 412(E), dated 20th January, 1979, see Gazette of India, Extraordinary,
Part II, sec. 3 (ii).
2. Subs. by Act 34 of 2009, s. 2, for certain words (w.e.f. 7-9-2009).
3. Subs. by Act 41 of 1982, s. 2, for “arbitrator” (w.e.f. 15-5-1983).
4. Subs. by s. 3, ibid., for clause (e) (w.e.f. 15-5-1983).
5. Subs by Act 34 of 2009, s. 3, for “metropolitan city” (w.e.f. 7-9-2009).
6. Ins. by s. 4, ibid. (w.e.f. 7-9-2009).
4
(i) “metro railway” means a metro railway or any portion thereof for the public carriage of
passengers, animals or goods and includes,—
(a) all land within the boundary marks indicating the limits of the land appurtenant to a metro
railway,
(b) all lines of rails, sidings, yards or branches worked over for the purposes of, or in
connection with, a metro railway,
(c) all stations, offices, ventilation shafts and ducts, warehouses, workshops, manufactories,
fixed plants and machineries, sheds, depots and other works constructed for the purpose of, or in
connection with, a metro railway;
(j) “metro railway administration”, in relation to any metro railway, means the General Manager
of that metro railway;
(k) “metropolitan city” means the metropolitan city of Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi or Madras;
(l) “metropolitan city of Bombay” means the area covered by Greater Bombay as defined in the
Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, 1888 (Bombay Act III 1888);
(m) “metropolitan city of Calcutta” means the area described under the heading “l. Calcutta
Metropolitan District” in the Schedule to the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Area (Use and
Development of Land) Control Act, 1965 (West Bengal Act XIV of 1965);
(n) “metropolitan city of Delhi” means the entire area of the Union territory of Delhi;
(o) “metropolitan city of Madras” means the area covered by the City of Madras as defined in the
Madras City Municipal Act, 1919 (Madras Act IV of 1919);
1
[(oa) “National Capital Region” means the National Capital Region as defined in clause (f) of
section 2 of the National Capital Region Planning Board Act, 1985 (2 of 1985);]
(p) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(q) “rolling stock” includes locomotives, engines, carriages (whether powered or not), wagons,
trollies and vehicles of all kinds moving or intended to move on rails;
(r) “to erect”, in relation to any building, includes—
(i) any material alteration or enlargement of such building,
(ii) conversion, by structural alteration, into a place for human habitation of such building not
originally constructed for human habitation,
(iii) conversion into more than one place for human habitation of such building originally
constructed as one such place,
(iv) conversion of two or more places of human habitation in such building into a greater
number of such places,
(v) such alteration of such building as would alter the drainage or sanitary arrangements
therein or would materially affect its security, and
(vi) the addition of any rooms in such building.
(2) All other words and expressions used herein and not defined but defined in the Indian Railways
Act, 1890 (9 of 1890), shall have the meanings, respectively, assigned to them in that Act.