Hyd Metro ropes in Deloitte as adviser

Consultancy firm Deloitte India has been appointed financial consultant and transaction adviser for the Rs 12,132-crore Hyderabad Metro Rail project.

Deloitte will assist Hyderabad Metro and the Andhra Pradesh government in preparation of bid documents, evaluation of bids, revision of the financial model, selection of concessionaire and negotiations with financial institutions for financial closure. The consultancy contract will be in force for one year.

According to an official press release, three consultancy firms — Deloitte, Grant Thornton India and AXYKno — were in the race for the contract. Deloitte scored the highest points at the technical stage and also became the lowest tenderer with a quote of Rs 37 lakh. Grant Thornton stood second with a quote of Rs 48 lakh.

In July, the state government had cancelled the concessionaire agreement with Maytas Infra, a company run by the family of Satyam Computer Services founder B Ramalinga Raju, on the ground that it had failed to do financial closure three months after the March deadline.

Subsequently, the state government, which also decided not to return the Rs 71 crore that Maytas had paid, called for fresh global bids for the 71-km elevated rail project.

Following this, HMR started selling request for qualification (RFQ) applications from July 24. Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure and Hyderabad-based Lanco Infratech have so far purchased the RFQ applications for taking up the project. Six other infrastructure firms, including GVK, Essar and L&T, have also evinced interest and held discussions with the officials concerned.

“We are expecting at least four serious bids for the project,” HMR managing director NVS Reddy earlier told Business Standard.