Uncertainity continues to cloud the much talked about over Rs 12,000-crore Hyderabad Metro Rail Project bagged by the Maytas Infra-led consortium comprising Navbharat Ventures Ltd, Ital Thai Development Public Company Ltd and IL&FS.
Maytas Infra has approached the Andhra Pradesh government seeking three months of extension, as the deadline for achieving financial closure for the project came to an end on Tuesday.
In a statement, the company?s spokesperson said Maytas Infra needs additional time to achieve the milestones mentioned in the concession agreement, which includes achievement of financial closure. ?The global recession and the consequent credit squeeze in national and international capital markets has created a Force Majeure situation. Besides, the ongoing PIL is having an extremely deleterious effect on our ability to achieve the financial closure. We are also affected by the global recession, and raising debt including external commercial borrowings (ECB) is proving to be a challenge in this market?, he said.
The project, since the signing of the concession agreement, has made good progress. Topographic surveys, alignment designs, architectural layouts of stations and preliminary designs for civil works have been completed, general arrangement drawing (GAD) for railway crossings have been submitted to the railway authorities for their approval with their inspection by railway authorities also being completed. The consortium has appointed world-class consultants for engineering and project management, financial advisory, and debt syndication, tax planning and insurance. It is also in the process of appointing traffic management consultant?, the statement said. Tender document for rail systems is complete and ready to be issued while, the tender document for civil works, power supply and depot is under preparation and would be finalised shortly, it added.
The multi-crore project got worldwide attention when Maytas Metro Ltd, the concessionaire did not seek any financial grant and infact offered to pay to a tune of Rs 30,311 crore over a concession period of 35 years. Maytas also paid Rs 11-crore advance to the government while signing the concession agreement sometime in September 2008.
But, right from the beginning, there was a lot of uncertainity surrounding the project as there were signs of recession in the market. And with the outbreak of the Satyam Computers fraud case, situation only went from bad to worse. Infact, the Andhra Pradesh government was thinking about booting out Maytas Infra from the Hyderabad Metro Rail project. But did not proceed as, in case of suo moto cancellation of the works , the government would not be able to forfeit the EMD (earnest money deposit) and bank guarantees given to the JV.
Besides, the JV partner could also go for litigation. They decided to closely monitor the developments at Maytas Infra and adopted a `wait and watch? policy.
