HYDERABAD (Metro Rail News): L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad which has established and runs the Hyderabad Metro Rail has been making ₹40 cr per month including ₹30 cr from passenger ticket charges and ₹10 cr from property development that enables it to ‘break-even’ in terms of running operations and maintenance currently.
However, having funded ₹12,674 cr in the project including around ₹12,000 cr loan from SBI led a consortium of banks, L&TMRH has to pay ₹1,300 cr profit annually. So, it could take anywhere from 7-8 years for the project to break even, said HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy on Tuesday.
In communication with presspersons at the Metro Rail Bhavan, he confessed that even the Centre had disbursed ₹1,200 cr from the ₹1,458 cr Viability Gap Funding made open for the Public-Private Partnership project; the rest of the money is yet to be sanctioned even though the Law Ministry has given permission.
“Unlike other metro projects across the country built with Centre-State government funds with low-interest loans from agencies like JICA – Japanese International Cooperation Agency of 1.5%, HMR was built with commercial bank loans taken at 11% interest and even now vested interests have been lobbying against the project preventing further funds infusion,” he accused.
The overall project cost is ₹21,000 cr since ₹14,132 cr is meant only for metro works, ₹2,500 cr was spent by State govt for properties acquisition, utilities shift and L&TMRH sunk in ₹3,500 cr inequity and ₹2,243 cr for business development but it could spend ₹900 cr latter having used the rest for other activities, stated Mr Reddy.
