Govt to acquire 208 acre for metro rail

The Andhra Pradesh government would acquire 208 acre of land at registered market price for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. In all, about 269 acre is required for the project of which, 61 acre would be government land and the rest needs to be acquired. Work on the project would start in January.

Construction major L&T emerged as the lowest bidder by seeking Rs 1,458 crore financial assistance for the Rs 12,132-crore project. The bids for the project were opened on July 14. The Letter of Intent would be given after the state Cabinet approves it formally in its next meeting.

The state government would be spending about Rs 200 crore for acquiring 208 acre at Miyapur and Nagole to be given to the concessionaire for construction of metro rail terminals and workshops, a cabinet minister said.

In its Friday’s meeting, the Cabinet expressed happiness over the successful completion of the bidding process for the metro rail project, for which the bids were called for the second time after Maytas Infra backed out after failing to achieve the financial closure.

The new concessionaire would be given six months for achieving financial closure.

The Centre is ready to fund 20 per cent of the project cost to the tune of Rs 2,363 crore through the viability gap funding (VGF). The state government has agreed to provide another 20 per cent for the project. However, L&T has sought only Rs 1,458 crore (12 per cent of the project cost) as VGF.

Chief minister K Rosaiah asked the officials to ensure that the project was completed in four years.