[1]Hyderabad: The cost of Hyderabad Metro Rail is set to escalate further with new plans to expand the project, from the core areas to the city outskirts.
The state government has proposed to expand the Metro Rail corridors by 33 km, to connect Alwal, Patancheru, Gachi-bowli etc, keeping in view the rapid expansion of the city, over the last five years.
The 72-km project cost which was estimated at Rs 12,132 crore, in 2008, has increased to Rs 16,375 crore by 2011, when the project developer L&T achieved financial closure.
The government is looking at various options to persuade L&T to expand the network in the first phase itself, which is scheduled to commission by July 2017, by making amendments to the Concessionaire agreement, besides offering land and other incentives.
However, L&T is said to be not keen on taking up the Metro rail corridor expansion, in the first phase, fearing steep increase in costs.
HMR has already earned the distinction of being the world’s largest public private partnership mode with L&T investing Rs 16,375 crore, putting enormous financial burden on the company. With the state government fixing the Metro rail ticket price at as low as Rs 8, the chances of recovering the investment with this price seems unrealistic.
The officials have proposed to expand the rail corridors from Miyapur to Patancheru via BHEL (12.5 km), JBS to Alwal (6.5 km) and JNTU to Shilparamam via Gachibowli (14 km) initially.
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[1] http://archive.asianage.com/08dwarkajpg-344