Hyderabad, June 15 (RAHNUMA): Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has announced that the State government is ready to take up the Metro Rail phase 2 project with 100 per cent equity without the Centre’s share.
The Chief Minister demanded the Union government to issue NOC ( No Objection Certificate) for Metro Rail expansion to expedite the project works.
Addressing a press conference at the Secretariat on Monday, the Chief Minister said that he had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Ministers Manohar Lal Khattar and Ashwini Vaishnaw for several times and urged them to sanction the metro rail expansion project which was already delayed for years.
Revanth Reddy mentioned that the Centre has agreed to sanction the Metro Rail phase-2 project with a 50 per cent share of each state and the union government after the contract agency L&T company took a back seat.
On the advice of the Centre, the state government took full control of the Metro Rail as the L&T did not agree to the proposal of Metro expansion in view of mounting losses in the first phase project. The agency created Rs 30,000 crore worth assets and however, it incurred an annual loss of ₹400 crore. The L & T management also refused to future operations and maintenance of the metro rail. Then, the State government took over Metro Rail assets worth ₹30,000 crore for just ₹15,000 crore, Revanth Reddy said.
To clear the L&T Metro ‘s loan amount of ₹13,600 crore from banks at an interest rate of 8.25 per cent, Revanth Reddy said the Telangana government convinced IRFC for funding and secured loan of ₹13,600 crore from a Japanese entity at an interest rate of 4 per cent.
The Chief Minister questioned the Centre for not permitting the transfer of loan from IRFC to state government. We have already paid ₹1,400 crore dues from us. We also submitted a letter confirming the Reserve Bank’s approval, yet the loan transfer was blocked,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the funds are due for release today and demanded Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy to take the responsibility of release of funds to the state government from the IRFC ( Indian Railways Finance Corporation) immediately.
The State government is ready to bear the entire cost of the execution of the metro rail expansion project. The centre should issue NOC, Revanth Reddy said.
The Chief Minister slammed the Union government for not approving the Metro Rail expansion project. He alleged that the Centre has discriminated against Telangana and approved only the metro rail projects Ahmedabad, UP and Vizag recently.
“We are not politicising the metro rail issue . Our goal is to take over the first phase of the Metro and complete Phase 2,” Revanth Reddy said.
The Chief Minister also took a strong dig at the previous KCR government for neglecting the metro rail expansion during the 10 year rule. The BRS government had focused more on amassing wealth rather than taking care of people’s welfare, Revanth Reddy charged.
He also expressed serious concern over dropping Hyderabad metro rail ranking to 9th place recently. The Chief Minister criticised former chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Union Minister Kishan Reddy for indulging in collusion politics on Metro rail expansion.
“The Union Minister was silent when KCR made harsh comments. Why the BRS and Kishan Reddy were hurling challenges at us. We respect Kishan Reddy but we are frustrated at him now. KTR is behind Kishan Reddy who is abetting conspiracies,” he said.
Revanth Reddy said after the formation of Telangana, the first phase of the Metro was obstructed under the pretext of protecting historical monuments. However, upon assuming power, the people’s government has decided to take up the Metro Rail expansion and they had met the Prime Minister and Union Ministers requesting for approval several times, but in vain.
The Chief Minister also questioned the Centre for the slowdown in the Warangal Airport project works.
