New Delhi, Jul 12 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Friday directed authorities to start work on Delhi Metro's 104-km Phase-IV project which had been hit by a feud between the Centre and the Delhi government.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta gave the ruling.

In the last hearing, the court was told that the project was "critical" and all pending issues should be resolved soon.

The bench was informed about an Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) report which said the project had been held up since 2014 when it was submitted to the Centre for approval.

The EPCA report pointed out to a stalemate in the discussions between the central and Delhi governments due to different financial aspects of the project.

The Delhi government had said that Delhi Metro would not start work on Phase-IV till the issues related to operational loss, repayment of the Japan International Cooperation Agency's loan, sharing of land cost and taxes and more were resolved.

The Centre on Friday told the court that funding for the project had been done as per the Metro Rail Policy of August 2017.

The government also said that metro projects of other cities had been sanctioned on the same financial pattern as Delhi Metro Phase-IV.