Scrap Maytas Hyderabad-Metro Project

With the Satyam Fraud coming open with its chief admitting it, the investors are busy arguing against the Hyderabad Metro project. The prestigious project was involved in many controversies from day one.

Maytas has no previous experience in the construction of a project like the HMR. Its financial position was not sound, convenor of Citizens for Better Public Transport in Hyderabad (CBPTH) C Ramachandraiah said.

It has rejected the Viability Gap Funding and offered to pay a whopping over Rs 30,000 crore to the State Government based on real estate business. It appears that financial institutions and banks are not willing to lend money to Maytas Infra for this venture. As the financial closure was coming closer, it was scandalous that Satyam tried to divert people's money to their family ventures, Ramachandraiah said.

"What Sreedharan of DMRC has cautioned in his letter to Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia in September last may come true in Hyderabad with a heavy social and economic cost,'' he said.

The project is heavily banked on real estate business which is on a downslide now. In future, if Maytas withdraws from the Metro Rail project, the State Government will have to take over the entire project.

"We demand that the Concession Agreement signed between the State Government and the Maytas should be scrapped immediately in larger public interest,'' Ramachandraiah said

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh was partial in coming our open in support of Raju and his family. An high-level inquiry should be demanded against the Congress government for its alleged involvement in many development projects






Earlier, the Citizens for a Better Public Transport in Hyderabad (CBPTH) has once again questioned several aspects of the Concession Agreement (CA) signed by the government with Maytas Metro Ltd., (MML) for building the elevated metro rail system in the city.


The organisation maintained that the agreement should be "scrapped immediately" and the "issue of public transport should be debated." Dr. Ramachandraiah pointed out that the GHMC alone stood to lose "hundreds of crores of rupees" in various taxes as no such levy was being imposed on the rail system. There was also no guarantee that more land would not be given to MML in future or if the estimated passengers per day (26.76 lakh a day) would fructify considering the poor record of Delhi Metro which was not even carrying 30 per cent of the projected commuters, he said.