Telangana govt forms committee to bail Hyderabad metro

The Telangana government has set up a high-level committee to bail out the Hyderabad metro rail, which saw major losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The high-level committee will include members of the Municipal Administrator K T Rama Rao, Vemula Prashanth Reddy and other senior officials. The Chief Minister instructed the committee to submit its report on saving the Hyderabad Metro Rail from incurring losses as soon as possible. Recently, a firm operating the Hyderabad Metro Rail, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), sought help from the Telangana state government to overcome the losses. Some officials from L&T had discussed the financial losses of the metro rail, bank loans repayment, mounting interests and requested the state government to come to their rescue. According to the annual report of L&T, the revenue generated from the operations and other income of the metro rail in the last financial year was Rs 228 crore, including both fare and non-fare revenue, compared to Rs 598.20 crore in FY20. The Hyderabad metro rail incurred heavy losses of about Rs 1,767 crore in FY21 from the previous year's income of Rs 382 crore on account of disruptions in the operation of the metro rail because of low ridership and fall in real estate operations. The Chief Minister of Telangana, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao, has assured the L&T that the state government will support the Hyderabad Metro Rail to get it back on the right pace. Image Source Also read: NIIF negotiates with L&T to invest Rs 4k cr in Hyderabad metro