Hyderabad metro rail project gets centre’s nod

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Government announced that the Union Government had given in-principle approval for the Rs 9,696-crore elevated Hyderabad Metro Rail project.

Chief Minister Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy said at a press conference in Hyderabad that this was the first Public Private Partnership (PPP) metro project to be approved by the Union Government and was also one of the largest metro projects in the world to be undertaken at one go in the PPP mode.

“The Central Government has allowed the Government of Andhra Pradesh to call for financial bids from the five pre-qualified consortia. The bids will be invited on April 18 and the bidders will be given two months’ time to submit their financial bids for the 71.16-km project,” he said.

The five international consortia of companies that have pre-qualified as prospective bidders for the BOT project are Essar Constructions, inclusive of its partners SREI, Singapore MRT, SEC and STE Singapore; Magna Allmore (Malaysia), Siemens AG (Germany), ETA (Dubai) and NCC; Reliance Energy and Bombardier (Canada); GVK-Alstom with partners; and Navbharat, Maytas, Ital Thai and IL&FS.

The Chief Minister also said that all the three lines of the metro rail route would be taken up simultaneously.

“There has been an increase in the cost of the project by Rs 1,214 crore because of the increase in the length of the metro by five km on one of the lines,” Mr Reddy said.

According to him, the Government of India under the viability gap funding (VGF) will provide 20 per cent of the project cost (Rs 1,939 crore) and is also considering grant of another 10 per cent (Rs 969 crore) under the JNNURM grant. “While the State Government will grant 10 per cent (Rs 969 crore), the rest of the Rs 5,819 crore has to be invested by the developer, which is around 60 per cent of the total project cost. Also the land will be provided by the State Government free of cost for the project,” he said.

Mr Reddy said the developer who seeks the lowest grant will be awarded the project.