T'gana wants Modi to inaugurate Hyderabad metro project

The Telangana government has proposed to inaugurate the first phase of Hyderabad metro rail project on November 28 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, state Municipal Administration Minister K T Rama Rao told the Legislative Assembly today.
The state government wants the Prime Minister to inaugurate the project when he visits the city for the the opening of Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) on November 28, he said in reply to a query by BJP MLAs.
The government is keen on the Prime Minister inaugurating the project as Hyderabad Metro is the biggest metro rail project in the world in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, he said.

Official communication on Prime Minister's participation is awaited, he said, hoping that it would come soon.
The state government has sanctioned Rs 3,000 crore to the Hyderabad Metro rail project of which Rs 2,240 crore has been spent so far.
The Centre is providing Viability Gap Funding of Rs 1,458 crore and has so far released an amount of Rs 958 crore, he said.

The project's concessionaire L&T has written to the state government on cost overruns, but the state government has not made any commitment on the matter, he said.
Noting that the agreement for the project was signed in July, 2012 for completion in five years, he said there has been no "unusual delay".

The metro could have been started in eight kms one year ago, but the state government wanted an "end to end solution" in the interest of project's success, he said, adding the metro is proposed to be started on 30-kms this month-end.
On the second phase of metro, he said the state government is examining the matter.
The Union Urban Development Ministry officials recently suggested a model of taking a loan for 60 per cent as externally aided project with the Centre and state bearing 20 per cent each, he said.
The government is taking steps for initiating the project in old city of Hyderabad also, he said.

Alleging that the minister did not reply satisfactorily on issues concerning the old city and additional financial burden and others, the BJP legislators walked out in protest.