Has Ysr Govt Made A Muck Of Metro Rail?

HYDERABAD: The Delhi Metro guru's bombshell is spreading tentacles in Hyderabad Metro corridor. This when chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy went t o the extent of describing the project as 'world's best' under the public-private partnership mode when the agreement was signed between the government and Maytas Infra consortium.
"It is nothing but a potential tool to promote the self-interests of certain firms in the name of providing urban transport," said C Ramchandraiah of Citizens for a Better Public Transport.
The fact that Maytas Infra-Navabharat Ventures-Ital Thai Development Public Company-ILFS consortium has bagged the tender by pledging Rs 30,311 crore over a 35-year period without taking a single penny from the government in itself smacked of a hidden agenda, say critics of the metro rail project.
"Sreedharan raising objections on Maytas Metro Ltd tantamounts to the civic groups' stated position that the government was hand in glove with Maytas,'' Ramchandraiah said. "Very little is known about Ital Thai. Though Maytas has included it in the consortium , 85 per cent stake is owned by Maytas Infra while the rest is equally shared by the three firms,'' sources said.
This debunks the very theory of BOT. Also, when firms like Siemens, Bombardier , Alstom which have experience in Metro projects, but still backed out on the grounds that HMR is not financially viable, how did the government hand over the project to a firm which has no expertise before, they question.
It's surprising that there is over 1,500 per cent variation from what Maytas consortium's offer to Magna Almore which promised to give Rs 250 crore to the government.
K Srinivas Rao of Lok Satta Party said: "Jaws dropped when Maytas came out with such a never-before offer. No one can dismiss or dispute a man of a calibre of Sreedharan, more so when he is the chief consultant for the project."
While Essar consortium sought Rs 3,100 crore, Reliance demanded Rs 2,811 crore. Surprisingly, the Centre even came forward to provide Rs 2,363 crore viability gap funding (VGF) but Maytas Infra refused to take the amount.
The fact that the government has included a clause to extend the lease period to another 25 years means all the land would be in the developer's custody . "Imagine lakhs of SFT commercial space up for grabs for 60 years and how the developer would go for the kill," Srinivas said. Vesting 269 acres of land in itself is allowing the developer to rake in huge moolah, opine civic activists.
The extension of line III corridor was more to do with the lands and projects of top construction firms as they are situated on both sides of the corridor . "The land price would soar 4 to 5 times to what is being quoted now," a source said.
Meanwhile, civic societies, political parties and concerned citizens on Monday renewed their demand that the contents of the agreement reached between the government and Maytas and other documents be made public.