Telangana government sets up committee to bail out Hyderabad Metro from losses

In June, the HMR reported more than Rs 1,700 crore losses and on June 25, L&T CEO and MD S N Subramaniam met Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and discussed the matter.

The Telangana Government has set up a committee to make recommendations on how to bail out Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) which is facing losses as it remained shut for over a year and now has very low occupancy due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

In June, the HMR reported more than Rs 1,700 crore losses and on June 25, L&T CEO and MD S N Subramaniam met Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and discussed the matter. The L&T representatives had requested the CM that due to Covid they are incurring the losses and the government should help them. On Tuesday, L&T officials again met the CM and sought help. The metro rail had resumed services on September 6 after remaining closed from March 25 last year.

On Wednesday, the CM constituted a committee to study the situation and suggest measures to be taken to help HMR. The committee comprises Urban Development and Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao, R&B Minister Vemula Prashanth Reddy, government’s Chief Advisor Rajiv Sharma, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, CM’s Principal Secretary S Narsing Rao, Finance Special Chief Secretary Ramakrishna Rao, Urban Development Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar and Principal Secretary (IT and Industries) Jayesh Ranjan.

Reddy said the committee will explore the possibilities of helping HMR as it was in heavy losses due to less traffic on account of the pandemic. The CM also gave assurance to L&T that the government will support the Metro Project and help it get back on track.

The decision to set up a committee was taken after L&T officials discussed with the CM about the financial losses of HMR, bank loan repayment, the mounting interest day by day and urged the government to come to their rescue.

A statement from the CM’s Office said that within a short span of time, the Hyderabad Metro, by providing the safest travel services, became a popular public transport system. “The pandemic had an adverse impact on Hyderabad Metro as it did on other sectors. For Hyderabad, which is growing day by day, metro rail services are necessary and there is a need to expand the services in the future. It is regrettable that the pandemic situation forced the Metro Rail project into financial crisis and it was made to pay compound interests. The state government would come to the rescue of the prestigious Hyderabad Metro project as it did for other sectors,” the statement read.

The CM instructed the committee to submit its report shortly on how to save the Metro project from incurring further losses after thoroughly studying all the aspects and also how to rejuvenate the project.

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