Hyderabad, July 14: State officials are hopeful that L&T would achieve financial closure by December and launch the project in January 2011.
“As L&T quoted an amount which is less than the VGF to be provided by the Centre, the state need not give it grant,” a senior official pointed out.
Hyderabad Metro Rail got delayed after the state cancelled the agreement with Maytas, which had promised to give Rs 30,000 crore to the government during the concession period, after it failed to achieve financial closure.
HMR had to postpone the fresh bids several times and the Telangana movement also cast a shadow on the project. “We are relieved because the new concessionaire is a strong player and has reputation of completing projects in time,” a state official said. Among six companies or consortia were shortlisted, two of them, GMR and GVK, did not submit financial bids.