Head of Hyderabad Metro: DPRs for phase-II are under consideration

Hyderabad metro is one among the world’s largest PPP project in the metro sector. Under the stewardship of NVS Reddy, Managing Director, Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd, the project was successfully commissioned in November 2017. In an interview with CW, Reddy shares more on project, related challenges and policy changes during execution, lessons learnt and much more… What sets Hyderabad Metro apart among similar urban rail transit projects in the country? Hyderabad Metro Rail project is a paradigm shift in building Urban Mass Transit Systems with alternate sources of financing. It is the world’s largest Metro Rail project built in the PPP mode. Barring a handful of projects, almost all the Urban Transit systems across the globe are built with government finances. However, out of about Rs 22,000 crore CAPEX on the 69 km Hyderabad Metro Rail project, 90 per cent of it has been raised by the private sector Concessionaire L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd (L&TMRHL) – a first in the world. A lot of financial and engineering innovation has gone into the making of this project with broad-based performance specifications providing the necessary leeway for the concessionaire to incorporate state-of-the-art technology. Further, it is not a simple mass transit project, but is used as an opportunity to facilitate redesigning of an Indian city as a people-friendly green city. What challenges were faced when the project was changed over to the PPP implementation model after initially having been conceptualised as a purely government-funded project…Click here to read more on…