The L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH), the concessionnaire building the project, has been given 17 months more time, i.e till November 2018, for completing the work taken up under the Public, Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
Top sources in the government have confirmed that a communication to this effect has been sent to the L&TMRH recently.
The one-km Hi-Tech City to Raidurg line on corridor three (from Nagole), held up owing to the ongoing underpass, will have to be completed within the new deadline.
The new date, however, excludes the five-km stretch in old city – from MGBS, Imlibun, to Falaknuma on corridor two, though the construction was on from Jubilee Bus Station to MGBS.
The decision to given extension was taken after several rounds of discussions within the higher echelons of the government weighing all the pros and cons, said a press release from HMRL on Tuesday.
It also said the L&TMRH was advised to gear up for launching the completed stretches of the project in the next few months and to also complete corridor one (Miyapur to L.B. Nagar: 29 km) and corridor three (Nagole to Hi-Tech City: 27 km) by the end of this year itself.
The ₹14,132-crore project to build elevated viaduct across three dense traffic corridors of 72 km in the city was taken up as per the Concessionnaire Agreement (CA) between the L&TMRH and the State government in 2012. The work was supposed to have been completed in five years or by July 4, 2017.
But due to various reasons like delays in providing the ‘right of way’ or sufficient space for building the piers, stations, etc., prolonged acquisition of properties and shift of utilities like pipelines, cables, drains and so on, the work got dragged on. Some more months were lost due to the government looking for change in alignment at three places, which was given up after realising the escalating cost.
Citing these aspects, the L&TMRH sought extension of the construction period for several months and compensation for the delays. However, the government sources asserted that only the timeline extension for construction was given.
“There will be problems in a project of this scale since both have stakes in it. We will sort them out as we will be partners for the next 35 years. The focus now is on completing the project in all aspects by next year and commissioning it,” said the government sources.
