L&T, that first refused to take up repairs to Medigadda barrage piers, blamed free bus ride scheme for fall in Hyderabad metro’s revenues.
Telangana CM Revanh Reddy
Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy seems to have taken a tough line against infrastructure major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) which runs the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) in Hyderabad for saying that it may exit the project in future.
L&T had earlier said that the Mahalakshmi scheme, under which women and transgender persons can travel with zero fare tickets on TSRTC buses, was cutting into its revenues and that it might consider selling the project. After the Mahalakshmi scheme came into effect, the number of daily passengers who used to travel by metro rail came down to 480,000 from 550,000 in November 2023.
The Telangana CM has been riled up by L&T’s refusal to take up the repairs to Medigadda Barrage whose piers sank in October last year. L&T is the contracting agency for the Medigadda Barrage, which is part of the state government’s big-ticket irrigation project – Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIP).
Revanth Reddy, in an informal interaction with reporters recently, said that he was not bothered about L&T seeking to exit the project. He said the governments work for people and not for corporates and if L&T wants to move out of the project, it was welcome to do so.
He said that the state would find another player to run the metro rail, indicating that he was not against metro rail per se and that he wanted the public transport system to continue by someone else, if not by the L&T.
He said the governments do not look at balance sheets like corporates do. The government works for the welfare of the people, he said implying that they do not have profit motives like the corporates do.
What seems to have ruffled the CM was the ‘unsolicited’ advice of Hyderabad Metro Rail’s chief financial officer R Shankar Raman, who said that governments should shift to a zero-pollution transport system rather than adopt policies that encourage travel by buses which are polluting the environment.
Adding fuel to the fire, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in an interview with a news channel recently, had criticised the Mahalakshmi scheme. He had said that it was not proper for a government to take off 50 per cent of passengers from a public transport facility to fulfil an election promise, unmindful of how such measures would empty the state exchequer and negatively impact the environment.
It was Narendra Modi who inaugurated the Hyderabad Metro Rail’s 30 km stretch from Miyapur to Nagole on 28 November 2017 and took the first ride along with the then Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao and the then Governor ESL Narasimhan. Since then the Hyderabad Metro Rail has become a very popular means of transportation for being both cost-effective and saving time.
Currently, the state government is planning a metro rail project along the ORR and extending connectivity to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad from Old City and Rayadurgam.
HMR has been vocal about its losses. In 2021, after HMR said it had incurred losses and L&T sounding an SoS, the then CM K Chandrasekhar Rao constituted a committee to explore ways to bail out Metro Rail.
In June 2023, the Telangana government provided an interest-free loan of Rs.100 crore to the Hyderabad Metro Rail. The loan was repayable in the 16th year of the company’s operation and the loan was to be utilised to reduce losses to ₹ 1,315 crore in 2022-23 as against 1,745 crores in 2021-22.
According to sources, the state government is equally tough with the L&T on taking up repairs to Medigadda Barrage as suggested by the National Dam Safety Authority (NDSA), at its own cost.
The state is contemplating recovering the entire cost the state would incur for repairs from the company if it does not take up the repairs. Revanth Reddy is expected to take a call in a day or two on the course of action he intends to take against L&T.
(Edited by Neena)
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