The prestigious Rs. 12,132 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project has been awarded to Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
The state government on Wednesday announced that the prestigious Rs. 12,132 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project has been awarded to Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
The announcement came after a cabinet ministers' meeting held on Wednesday.
The project was bagged by the lowest bidder. Since the grant of Rs. 1,458 crore sought by L&T is within the viability gap funding (VGF) amount sanctioned by GoI, the whole amount will be paid by the central government.
However, the AP government will incur an expenditure of Rs. 1,980 crore towards the acquisition of 204 acres of private land; shifting of utilities; relief and rehabilitation (R&R) activities for affected people; structural compensation for affected properties; reconstruction of the structures on government properties near the stations; and improvement of alternate roads for facilitating smooth flow of traffic during construction.
Sanctioning this expenditure, the Cabinet decided to release Rs. 500 crore out of this amount in the current financial year (2010-11).
The Cabinet meeting considered the recommendations of the government-appointed 3-member committee - consisting of MD, HMRL; Finance Secretary (R&E); and MD, HMWSSB - and the views of the Law and the Finance Departments, and approved the committee's recommendation to award the project to L&T at its quoted grant, which is 12% of the project cost.
The remaining amount will have to be borne by L&T through equity contribution and raising debt. While 6 pre-qualified companies/consortia viz.,(i) Larsen & Toubro Ltd; (ii) Lanco Infratech Ltd – OHL (Spain) consortium; (iii) Reliance Infrastructure–Reliance Infocomm consortium; (iv) Essar – Leighton (Australia) – Gayatri – VNR consortium; (v) Transstroy - OJSC Transstroy (Russia) - CR 18 (China) - BEML consortium; and (vi) Soma – Strabag AG (Austria) consortium purchased the bid documents, 3 of them participated in the financial bids with a Bid Security of Rs. 240 crore each, which were opened on 14 July.
L&T became the lowest bidder, seeking a grant of Rs. 1,458 crore, while the Transstroy-led consortium sought Rs. 2,200 crore, and the Reliance consortium sought Rs. 2,991 crore.
The Cabinet was apprised of the salient features of the Draft Concession Agreement (DCA), which would govern the elevated metro rail project in 3 high density traffic corridors of Hyderabad viz., i) Miyapur-LB Nagar (28.87 km); ii) JBS-Falaknuma (14.78 km); & iii) Nagole-Shilparamam (27.51 km).
The estimated project cost is Rs. 12,132 crore, and the estimated traffic demand is 15 lakh passengers per day in 2014 and 22 lakh passengers per day in 2024.
The concessionaire can undertake real estate development upto a maximum of 18.5 million sqft subject to the municipal bye laws, through utilization of air space over the 269 acres of land earmarked for Rail facilities at their own cost. However, ownership of land and assets remains with the government, and the concessionaire cannot sell the developed assets;
The key performance indicators include provision of enough air-conditioned coaches and a number of other provisions to make the rail System a state-of-the-art world class Mass Rapid Transit System. The system will be designed for a 2-minute frequency, but trains can initially be run with a frequency of 3 to 5 minutes.
Fail-safe signalling system with latest features, automatic fare collection system, and intermodal integration with rail terminals, bus depots, MMTS stations and feeder buses are among the other features expected to be built into the system.
The fare structure would consist of a minimum basic fare of Rs. 8, and a maximum fare of Rs. 19 in 2014. From the 21st year onwards, the concessionaire shall pay the government 0.5% of the Realizable Fare net of taxes and increasing it additionally 0.5% every year, subject to a ceiling of 10%. In future, L&T will have to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to implement the project and enter into a Concession Agreement with the government within one month after the Letter of Award (LoA).
The ground works for the project are scheduled to commence in January 2011.
The Cabinet directed the project authorities to implement the project in a time-bound manner.
L&T was specifically directed to make special efforts to minimize inconvenience to road users during the construction period, and to ensure that a world class system is built with special emphasis on safety during construction and in operations.
Courtesy: INN