Information DELAYED is information DENIED

When Hyderabad metro officials were denying the copies of Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) even under RTI Act, I filed a petition in the AP State Information Commission (APSIC) on 22nd Feb, 2011. Now I got a letter from the APSIC to appear before it on 3rd Oct, 2012, that is, after more than one-and-half year. Meanwhile, the metro works have started etc., etc. What is the use of getting the DPRs now even if we find glaring loopholes in them? -- CR.

L&T Hyd Metro gets 15 acres at Raidurg - scandal unfolding too fast?

Our comment: L&T Hyd metro scandal is unfolding too fast. We have been saying from the very beginning that it is a land-real estate project in the garb of metro. 15 acres of land at Raidurg in the IT hub Gachibowli area is the key for extension of the metro route by 1 km. This was not part of the Concession Agreement. Instead of at Shilparamam the Line-3 will now terminate one kilometre away. The news item says: “The terminal station at Shilparamam was aborted since the site was found to be on a lake bed.”  What a farcical reason. If so, didn't they know it before? It also says: there would be no need to acquire "any land for parking and circulating areas for the stations from institutions like Osmania University, National Institute of Nutrition, Koti Women’s College and others.” If so, then how are you going to provide parking space for commuters at these stations?

Metro rail extended till Raidurg (The Hindu, Hyd, 29 Aug 2012)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/article3834705.ec

Hyderabad Metro Rail’s Line Three from Nagole to Shilparamam will now terminate one kilometre away at Raidurg with the Government issuing orders allotting 15 acres for developing parking and circulation area for the station on Tuesday.

The land was under the possession of A.P. Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) and has been handed over to the metro rail authorities for Rs.9 crore towards development charges excluding the land cost.

It will be part of the 269 acres to be provided for the project and apart from land for depots at Miyapur, Nagole and Falaknuma, 57 acres are for parking and circulation at the overhead stations.

With Raidurg land allotment, another 12 acres remain to be given. The terminal station at Shilparamam was aborted since the site was found to be on a lake bed.

The elevated train will now take a left turn near Hi-Tec City and culminate near the Mindspace-Raheja edifice at Raidurg, explained HMR Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy. The new station should come as a boon to the estimated 2 lakh-odd people working in the hub including those working in the adjacent financial district. It would also mean avoiding seeking any land for parking and circulating areas for the stations from institutions like Osmania University, National Institute of Nutrition, Koti Women’s College and others.

The extra kilometre for Line Three will escalate the Rs.14,132 crore project cost by Rs.200 crore. The third corridor will now be 28.52 km/24 stations. Line One is from Miyapur-L.B.Nagar – 28.87 km/27 stations and Line Two proposed from Jubilee Bus Station-Falaknuma is 14.78 km/16 stations and overall, the metro rail covers 72.16 km.

Metro works to be halted for biodiversity meet

As this scam-in the making continues, more startling revelations will be coming to the fore. Watch out - C.R

Larsen & Toubro told to halt metro works for biodiversity meet

B V Shiv Shankar, Times of India, Hyderabad, Aug 22, 2012.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/Larsen-Toubro-told-to-halt-metro-works-for-biodiversity-meet/articleshow/15592503.cms

HYDERABAD: The city's metro rail project has hit yet another roadblock. The government in its mad rush to beautify the city for COP 11 has instructed Larsen & Toubro that is executing the metro rail project, to stop work until the international biodiversity summit is over. But the instruction has caught L&T in a bind. For starters, it has come verbally and makes no mention whatsoever of compensating L&T for the loss it would incur for the days of work lost, that they estimate would be around Rs 300 crore. 

The Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities had verbally informed L&T in the first week of August to stop metro work from August 15 to October 19, when COP 11 ends. While L&T has so far not stopped work, officials said on Tuesday that pressure was mounting on them. "The government wants to get away without paying compensation by issuing such oral instructions. This is not fair as we will suffer a huge loss. If they want us to stop work, they must allow us to invoke Force Majeure clause," said a highly placed source in L&T. As per the concession agreement, L&T, the project concessionaire, can invoke Force Majeure clause claiming the compensation if the government issues "official instructions" to stop work. In the absence of a written communication, officials peg their estimated loss for this 60-day break at around Rs 300 crore, estimating that each day's delay is adding Rs 5 crore to the escalating project cost. 

Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had directed government officials to ensure that metro rail work did not come in the way of the bio-diversity convention to be held in the city from October 1 to 19. 

Official denies effect of COP 11 on metro works 
The CM had sanctioned Rs 125 crore for city beautification, which includes a plan to upgrade 125-km road corridor from airport to star hotels, constructing 35 new fountains, proper sanitation and remodeling of junctions among others. 

But NVS Reddy, managing director of HMRL, played down L&T's concern. He said, "It is not a big deal. If L&T wants us to issue instructions in writing, we are ready to do it. But, it has to be done on a proper forum." Denying the effect of COP 11 on metro project, Reddy said the works would be continuing in other parts of the city in the non-COP areas. "When the works would continue in other parts of the city, where is the question of invoking Force Majeure clause and paying for the loss," he questioned. 

However, sources in L&T said the government has asked the company to stop the entire work as the beautification work is being carried out across the city and not just the arterial roads that delegates would be using. They further said that the amount of money the government was spending on beautification in non-COP areas would go waste as L&T would demolish all of it for metro construction work. And if NVS Reddy's claim that metro work would continue in non-COP areas is anything to go by, L&T said it would bulldoze over the beautified stretches even before the convention starts.

On Bengaluru Metro & Delhi's Airport Line

Though the following two problems are not directly related to Hyderabad, we are posting them because of the their relevance to the issue of metro projects in India --CR

Metro medians turn garbage dumps

Sunitha Rao R, TNN | Aug 6, 2012, 04.01AM IST

BANGALORE: Garbage contractors appear determined to ruin the city's aesthetics. Under pressure to find space to dump waste, they have begun offloading debris in medians between Namma Metro pillars. What was planned to be a colourful bed of flowers has become home for stinking heaps of garbage all along Reach 1 on the MG Road-Byappanahalli route.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/Metro-medians-turn-garbage-dumps/articleshow/15369170.cms

Did DMRC compromise on airport metro line safety? 
Sandeep Kumar, IBN7

New Delhi: The government-run Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) has filed a report that exposes how the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and Reliance Infra overlooked serious technical problems in the India’s first airport metro service.

The RDSO's report accessed by IBN 7 shows how the airport metro ran on broken clips for eight months. The report says 11,000 clips found broken on the IGI airport-Shivaji Stadium track.

The RDSO says the DMRC did not reply despite reminders. For more, click the following link-

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/did-dmrc-compromise-on-airport-metro-line-safety/279283-3-244.html

HMR's starting date - 5 July 2012

This itself is another face of a scam. Instead of announcing the date on which the works were commenced, the L&T and HMR announced that 5th July 2012 as the official starting date (Appointed Date) for the Hyderabad metro rail. That is, nearly eight months after commencing the works. After dilly-dallying for several months and more than one year after financial closure (March 2011) they have finally announced this date. The project will have to be completed within 5 years. Only time will tell and expose their hypocrisy

The official press release says: "On government's assurance, L&T started construction activity from May this year but the appointed date could not be declared as the government had to fulfill certain conditions,". L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad Ltd, the concessionaire of the project, together with HMRL, announced this official date of commencement.

As civil society activists we have been questioning the HMR and L&T regarding the delay in not announcing the Appointed Date (as per the Concession Agreement) even after starting the civil works.

HMR cost to cross Rs. 20,000 crore

Delay drives up metro rail cost to 20K crore

BV Shiva Shankar, Times of India, Hyderabad, Jun 7, 2012,

HYDERABAD: Plagued by delays, the cost of the Hyderabad metro rail project has escalated to Rs 20,000 crore and is increasing by Rs 5 crore for each day lost. The present estimate is over three times the original outlay of Rs 6,200 crore, drawn up when the project was conceived in 2006. And, sources believe that the Rs 20,000 crore figure, too, is bound to rise sharply as there is no indication as to when the project would be taken up in right earnest. Needless to say, the burden of the increased cost will be recovered - indirectly - from the exchequer or through high fares for the passengers.

The project can properly kick off only from what is known in technical parlance as the 'Appointed Date'. This date can be declared only after the government is able to give Right of Way to contractor Larsen & Toubro. For those who came in late, Right of Way means that L&T can work unhindered on the project. However, for that to happen, the government first needs to complete the process of land acquisition for the project, which has been caught up in legal hurdles.

As per the agreement with L&T, the contractor has to complete the project within five years of the Appointed Date. Sources say that the government wants to fix an Appointed Date even though the process of land acquisition is incomplete. However, L&T is unwilling to proceed unless it gets Right of Way. Delay in the declaration of the Appointed Date, or the official commencement of the Metro Rail project, has forced L&T to revise its plans for incurring loans from banks. In a letter to the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd on Tuesday, L&T said that if the Appointed Date is declared this month, then the first stage of the project - the 8km stretch between Nagole and Mettiguda on Corridor 3 - will be operational by April 2015.

As per the concession agreement signed between the state government, L&T and the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ld (HMRL) on September 4, 2010, the work had to start on March 3, 2011, with the banks supposed to have disbursed loans in accordance with the withdrawal plan and the progress of the work. Now, with the original plan mired in problems, L&T has to submit a revised blueprint, which the authorities are presently working on.

"The banks want us to submit a revised plan for loan withdrawal given the delay in commencement of works due to which we were not able to take on the loan.  We will submit the revised plan in a week's time and, thereafter, the project will be fast-tracked," Vivek Gadgil, chief executive and managing director of L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad), told TOI.

However, without the declaration first of an 'Appointed Date', the revised plan will be of little help as the banks are bound to insist on a fixed starting point which would allow them to calculate the deadline for the project.

"Some factors are in our hands and some are in the hands of the government. You have to ask them why there is a delay in the declaration of the Appointed Date," Gadgil said. He added that depot construction work was on in full swing at Miyapur and Nagole while recasting jobs for viaducts and the erection of piers, too, were underway.

Gadgil said that L&T had spent over Rs 500 crore on the project since the signing of the concession agreement on September 4, 2010.

3-Month break for Hyderabad Metro rail works

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metro Rail works are likely to be given a break for close to three months from August to October this year in view of the prestigious International Bio-Diversity Summit scheduled to be held in the State capital in October. This was informed by NVS Reddy, managing director of Hyderabad Metro Rail project, at a review meeting on city beautification held at the GHMC main office near Tank Bund on Wednesday.

He also pointed out that the authorities would be writing letters to the construction company- Larsen &Toubro, to remove all the soil-testing blockages erected in the middle of the city roads on various routes by August 15.

The rest of the works would be taken up only after the conclusion of the COP summit. GHMC Commissioner M T Krishna Babu directed the zonal commissioners to personally inspect identified corridors, along with officials of the APCPDCL, HMWSSB and R&B, to ensure full development of the corridors and also to expedite the works on priority basis with regard to relocation of electric poles, transformers, shifting of unused pipes from the roads, bringing the level of manholes to the road height etc. Read the full news item in The Hans India, 24 May 2012 at the following link: http://www.thehansindia.info/News/Article.asp?category=5&subCategory=1&ContentId=61547

We would like to ask: 

The metro MD stated in the Affidavit to AP High Court that EACH DAY'S DELAY WILL ADD RS. 5 Cr/day to the project cost. Now who will be responsible for an escalation of about Rs. 450 cr (90 days@5 cr)? Will he or L&T explain?