Larsen & Toubro, the firm behind the Hyderabad Metro Rail, has now pinned its hopes on the Centre to get to the bottom of its dispute with the Telangana government over realignment of the Metro route to circumvent passing close to the heritage structures in the city.
The firm is not in favor of any modification to the project at this stage, and the issue is learnt to have taken up with the Union finance ministry and the Union urban development ministry.
The company has urged the Centre to resolve the issue at the earliest, as works have been slowed down at several locations near the Legislative Assembly, Moazam Jahi Market etc.
These issues are likely to come up for discussion at the meeting convened by the Union finance secretary at New Delhi on July 25. Officials from HMR and L&T as well as Union urban development ministry will partake in the meeting.
While officials are calling it a “regular meeting,” it has assumed significance in the backdrop of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao making a statement in the Assembly that his government will not give permission to demolish heritage markets for the Metro. The officials should consider other options such as “underground Metro lines” wherever needed, said CM.
But, L&T has been opposing the “underground” idea saying that it will levitate the project cost and would make the Metro “financially unviable.”
And is also not in favour of realigning the route because the existing routes were planned after undertaking extensive surveys since the project cost by now crossed Rs 17,000 crore and the company is not willing to spend more.