Govt extends RFQ date for metro, again

The ongoing agitation for a separate Telangana and a unified Andhra has impacted the Rs 12,132 crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project with the government further extending the request for qualification (RFQ) date till January 16.

Earlier, the last date for submission of RFQ documents was December 14. As a result, the shortlisted names would now be announced on January 28, 2010, instead of December 31. This is fifth time the government has extended the RFQ date.

“Due to the prevailing conditions in Andhra Pradesh and other administrative reasons, the Authority (metro rail) has decided to extend the application due date for the Hyderabad metro rail project,” the government said on the metro rail website.

When contacted, senior officials did not comment on the decision.

So far, eight consortiums — L&T, Lanco, India Bulls, DB Group, VNR, GVK, Reliance (Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group) and Essar — have purchased the forms after the government called for fresh bids for the elevated rail project in public-private partnership.

Under the new schedule, the sale of bid documents would go on till January 28 and it would receive queries from February 11 next year. The bids would be opened on April 9 instead of March 18 announced earlier. In between, there would be two pre-bid meetings.

Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, the special purpose vehicle set up to implement the project, issued a notification inviting RFQ to prequalify and shortlist the bidders on July 1. It then said the bidding process would be completed by November 15 and the project would be ready in about four years.

The state government had called for fresh tenders after the Maytas Infra-led consortium failed to achieve financial closure in March this year

Keeping in view its past experience, the government has also enhanced the bid security for the project from 0.5 per cent to one per cent, implying that the successful bidder would have to pay Rs 120 crore to the state government (Maytas paid Rs 60 crore).

“The turmoil in the state is recent. The government should have processed the applications it received by now,” said Issac A George, chief financial officer of GVK Power and Infra Limited, one of the bidders.

According to him, it’s unlikely that more companies would bid for the project at this stage.

The government was intent on launching the project on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer basis by May next year. It planned to open some sections for traffic by March 2014 and complete the entire project by the end of 2014. However, the project is already behind schedule by a year.