Metro Rail only by December 2018
The first official word of the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) overshooting the construction deadline and thereby cost overruns due to land acquisition and other ‘hurdles’ was made here on Wednesday.
L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad outgoing managing director and chief executive V.B. Gadgil said that the project would be ready in all aspects on the three corridors by December 2018 as things stood now.
This would be at least one and a half years away from the scheduled deadline of July 5, 2017, as per the Concession Agreement (CA) signed with the Government six years ago.
Mr. Gadgil, project in-charge since inception, also made it clear that commercial operations of the metro rail in two stages of Nagole to Mettuguda and Miyapur to S.R. Nagar would not be starting next month as was announced earlier since there were a lot of issues still to be tackled on this front.
While the first construction stage is complete in all aspects, the second stage of Miyapur to S.R. Nagar too is technically complete.
Checks by the Commissioner of Rail Safety have been completed and a few more permits are required before it is ready to become operational by mid-July.
“There is no possibility of commercial operations [now] as there are a few hurdles to be cleared. Negotiations are at an advanced stage with the Telangana Government, we are hopeful it will be resolved soon,” he said, addressing a press conference along with L&T President and deputy MD S.N. Subrahmanyan to announce his successor.
Shivanand Nimbargi will be the new CEO & MD of L&TMRH, taking charge on June 1.
A mechanical engineer, he was earlier MD & CEO of Sembcorp Green Infra Limited and had a long career in the power sector having worked in organisations like Alstom India Limited and Babcock & Wilcox.
