Hyderabad, July 08: Bogged down by controversies from Day One, the Rs 12,200-crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project has finally gone off track with the State Government scrapping the contract awarded to Maytas Infra-led consortium comprising Navabharat Ventures Ltd, Ital Thai of Thailand and IL&FS.
The decision follows the inability of Maytas Infra, a sister concern of the scam-hit Satyam Computer Services Ltd, in achieving financial closure for the project in time and paying performance guarantee deposit. It was supposed to secure financial closure by March but kept buying time from the government. With the cancellation, the company has forefeited Rs 11 crore deposited with the government.
Ever since the project’s conceptualisation, there has been a hue and cry over the way it had been conceived and doubts were expressed over the intentions of the government in preferring Maytas Infra to the others. To cap it all, E Sreedharan, Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, had called the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project ‘a political scam in the making,’ in a letter to the Planning Commission in Sept, 2007.
Maytas Infra management met Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Monday and sought more time for the completion of formalities.
Principal Secretary of MAUD also recommended granting time to the company.
Nonetheless, the government decided otherwise. It will take a decision on July 13 on what should be done with the metro rail project, according to Municipal Administration Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy. He said the Chief Minister wanted to complete the project at any cost by 2014.
The consortium of Maytas Infra Ltd, Navabharat Ventures Ltd, Ital Thai of Thailand and IL&FS Ltd had won the contract for metro rail project on July 24 last year. It was asked to develop 71-km metro network on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis with a concession period of 30 years.
According to the design, the elevated metro rail is supposed to run on three routes: from Miyapur to LB Nagar; Jubilee Bus Station to Falknuma; and Osmania University to Shilparamam in the city. On completion, the project is expected to ferry 1.7 million passengers every day. The Centre had agreed to bear 30 per cent of the project cost.
Now that the project is out of the lap of Maytas, it remains to be seen what course of action the government takes. According to sources, the government might prefer the second bidder for the project or invite tenders again.
–Agencies–