3 days ago
After Revanth meets PM, Hyderabad Metro Rail Phase II awaits Centre's final nod for the JV
There is renewed hope of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Phase II covering 76.4 km spread across five corridors, including extending the existing first phase lines of 69.2 km in the capital region, getting on track at an estimated cost of ₹24,269 crore soon. With Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the NITI-Aayog conclave and once again seeking his support for next phase recently, senior officials are confident of getting the clearance.
The Centre's support is crucial because a joint venture pact with it will enable the Telangana government to access the loan from multilateral agencies like JICA, Japanese International Cooperation Agency, and others, at a nominal interest rate of about 2% with a long repayment period.
The Centre's sovereign guarantee cover for such loans will enable States to source funds from foreign funding agencies. This financial model will be unlike the HMR first phase project taken up under the Public, Private Partnership (PPP) — world's largest for Metros — as decided by the then government when nationalised banks issued a loan at 10%, explained senior officials.
The Telangana government's share of the Metro rail second phase project of the total cost of ₹24,269 crore is projected to be 30% or ₹7,313 crore, Centre's share will be 18% or ₹4,230 crore and loan will be 48% or ₹11,693 crores with the PPP component being 4% or ₹1,033 crore.
Usually, it takes about three months for the project to vetted by the Central ministries for a JV. Though it has been seven months since the State government had submitted the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) prepared by the Hyderabad Airport Metro Rail (HAML), it is learnt that the Centre had posed a few questions.
These are about how the first and second phase Metro rail operations will be intertwined once the latter becomes operational since the first phase was built and is run by a private concessionaire L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH).
There were queries raised about the potential ridership scenario of 8 lakh to 10 lakh passengers a day once the second phase becomes operational. HAML has reportedly stated that the ridership numbers is a 'conservative' estimate considering the growth of city in the last 10 years, and promised to take further traffic studies while stating that the capital region has expanded into the suburbs and beyond including offices, factories, warehouses, etc.
It is also pointed out that Bengaluru, Chennai, Nagpur and Pune Metros witnessed riders count doubling once the new lines were added with inter-connectivity varying from 1.5 lakh to 7.5 lakh a day. Incidentally, Chennai Metro Rail Phase Two got Centre's approval in October last year but it took six years though the Tamil Nadu government had started the construction work. Finally, it will be the Prime Minister's Office that will take the call.
