This is only the beginning in the Metro rail scam. And only 17 properties. More can be detected if properly enquired into as the land acquisition process continues for thousands of properties. There is something for everybody to loot in the metro rail scandal in Hyderabad! Read the story:
Showing posts with label Land Acquisition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Land Acquisition. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Monday, October 17, 2011
L&T getting jittery over Metro Rail
L&T getting jittery over Metro Rail
Co. May Ditch Project Over Land Acquisition Delay
B Krishna Prasad, Times of India, Hyderabad, 15 Oct,2011.
A very interesting and also an encouraging news to the activists the top headline item that appeared on the Times of India, Hyderabad on 15 October 2011 probably reflects the current state of affairs regarding the Hyd metro rail project, and the frustration of the L&T company in executing the same. The news item says, among other things, -
- “several reasons like delay in land acquisition and pressure by local politicians for sub-contracts, for forcing it to re-consider going ahead with the project”.
- Independent director of L&T “complained to the government over the inordinate delay in the handing over of 269 acres of land as agreed upon in the agreement”.
- “facing pressure from several local politicians to allocate subcontracts to parties of their choice”.
- “the government penalty to L&T for the delay in the project stands at nearly Rs 60 crore”.
- L&T is "paying huge interest for the loans it secured from various banks after the financial closure for the project in March 2011”.
- L&T is "annoyed with the day-today interference in the execution of the project by HMR managing director N V S Reddy”.
- L&T team has been seeking an appointment with the Chief Minister for the past one month "but has been unsuccessful so far”.
Full item is given below:
Hyderabad: Construction giant Larsen & Toubro, the private promoter of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project, has stated several reasons like delay in land acquisition and pressure by local politicians for sub-contracts, for forcing it to re-consider going ahead with the project.
Independent director of Larsen & Toubro Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited, a subsidiary and a special purpose vehicle of the L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, and retired IAS officer Sheila Bhide, recently complained to the government over the inordinate delay in the handing over of 269 acres of land as agreed upon in the agreement. "Apart from land acquisition, we are facing pressure from several local politicians to allocate subcontracts to parties of their choice," said sources in the company.
According to the sources, the land acquisition process is the main reason for L&T having second thoughts about the project. As per the agreement, the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project (HMR), a government body, has to acquire the land for the project and hand it over to L&T. HMR in turn has entrusted the land acquisition job to GHMC. The 71.16 km-long rail project is to be constructed on three corridors, Miyapur-LB Nagar (28.87 km), Jubilee bus Station-Falaknuma
(14.78 km) and Nagole-Shilparamam (27.51 km) at a cost of Rs 12,132 crore and L&T bagged it in global bids floated by the state government after the project was cancelled, after Maytas the original promoter went bust post the Ramalinga Raju scam.
But as of date, the land acquisition process has not made any progress in areas including the Purani Haveli Road-Shalibanda stretch in Old City, the Greenlands-Ameerpet-Madhuranagar-Krishna Nagar stretch, Country Club at Greenlands (where a station is supposed to be located), Prakash Nagar, Begumpet (parallel to the old airport flyover), from Punjagutta to Lakdi-ka-pul and Madhapur. “This is not surprisng because the project had been envisioned by Ramalinga Raju as a realtyled one. After it went phut, the government should have reviewed the project and changed the routes. But it did not do so. Everbody knew that there would be land acqusition problems,” an analyst said.
To speed up the land acquisition, the government set up a committee comprising the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) additional commissioner (development planning) K Dhananjaya Reddy, deputy collector for land acquisition, the executive engineer of the respective corridor and the Hyderabad Metro Rail general manager for land management. But even that has not helped in speeding up the land acquisition process.
Independent director of Larsen & Toubro Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited, a subsidiary and a special purpose vehicle of the L&T Infrastructure Development Projects, and retired IAS officer Sheila Bhide, recently complained to the government over the inordinate delay in the handing over of 269 acres of land as agreed upon in the agreement. "Apart from land acquisition, we are facing pressure from several local politicians to allocate subcontracts to parties of their choice," said sources in the company.
According to the sources, the land acquisition process is the main reason for L&T having second thoughts about the project. As per the agreement, the Hyderabad Metro Rail Project (HMR), a government body, has to acquire the land for the project and hand it over to L&T. HMR in turn has entrusted the land acquisition job to GHMC. The 71.16 km-long rail project is to be constructed on three corridors, Miyapur-LB Nagar (28.87 km), Jubilee bus Station-Falaknuma
(14.78 km) and Nagole-Shilparamam (27.51 km) at a cost of Rs 12,132 crore and L&T bagged it in global bids floated by the state government after the project was cancelled, after Maytas the original promoter went bust post the Ramalinga Raju scam.
But as of date, the land acquisition process has not made any progress in areas including the Purani Haveli Road-Shalibanda stretch in Old City, the Greenlands-Ameerpet-Madhuranagar-Krishna Nagar stretch, Country Club at Greenlands (where a station is supposed to be located), Prakash Nagar, Begumpet (parallel to the old airport flyover), from Punjagutta to Lakdi-ka-pul and Madhapur. “This is not surprisng because the project had been envisioned by Ramalinga Raju as a realtyled one. After it went phut, the government should have reviewed the project and changed the routes. But it did not do so. Everbody knew that there would be land acqusition problems,” an analyst said.
To speed up the land acquisition, the government set up a committee comprising the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) additional commissioner (development planning) K Dhananjaya Reddy, deputy collector for land acquisition, the executive engineer of the respective corridor and the Hyderabad Metro Rail general manager for land management. But even that has not helped in speeding up the land acquisition process.
L&T paying huge interest on loans
“We are also concerned over the delay in the land acquisition process,” B Sam Bob, principal secretary, municipal administration, told TOI.
Because of the delay in the land acquisition process, the L&T management is paying huge interest for the loans it secured from various banks after the financial closure for the project in March 2011. L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd has already submitted a performance guarantee of Rs 360 crore to the state government. A consortium of 10 banks led by SBI has sanctioned the entire debt requirement of Rs 11,480 crore and the equity component of around Rs 3,440 crore would be infused by the L&T group for the project.
The state should also have reasons to worry over the delay in the project, as if it does not hand over 90% of the land to the private promoter within 90 days of the payment of Performance Surety, the state would have to shell out Rs 36 lakh per day of delay in the project. The penalty clause came into effect on May 5 this year, and as of date, the government penalty to L&T for the delay in the project stands at nearly Rs 60 crore.
“Execution of the Metro Rail project is a highly skilled work and any deviation from the quality norms would doom it. Some works involving non-skilled activity can be given to local contractors, but not the major ones as is being demanded,” said the sources in the company. L&T is also reportedly annoyed with the day-today interference in the execution of the project by HMR managing director N V S Reddy.
To bring all these issues to the notice of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, an L&T team has been seeking an appointment with him for the past one month but has been unsuccessful so far. Miffed by the indifferent response, the company recently asked a senior cabinet minister to prevail over Kiran Kumar and ensure that he meets the company’s representatives. According to the minister, the CM assured him that he would meet the L&T team after the ongoing Telangana strike ends.
“We are also concerned over the delay in the land acquisition process,” B Sam Bob, principal secretary, municipal administration, told TOI.
Because of the delay in the land acquisition process, the L&T management is paying huge interest for the loans it secured from various banks after the financial closure for the project in March 2011. L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd has already submitted a performance guarantee of Rs 360 crore to the state government. A consortium of 10 banks led by SBI has sanctioned the entire debt requirement of Rs 11,480 crore and the equity component of around Rs 3,440 crore would be infused by the L&T group for the project.
The state should also have reasons to worry over the delay in the project, as if it does not hand over 90% of the land to the private promoter within 90 days of the payment of Performance Surety, the state would have to shell out Rs 36 lakh per day of delay in the project. The penalty clause came into effect on May 5 this year, and as of date, the government penalty to L&T for the delay in the project stands at nearly Rs 60 crore.
“Execution of the Metro Rail project is a highly skilled work and any deviation from the quality norms would doom it. Some works involving non-skilled activity can be given to local contractors, but not the major ones as is being demanded,” said the sources in the company. L&T is also reportedly annoyed with the day-today interference in the execution of the project by HMR managing director N V S Reddy.
To bring all these issues to the notice of chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, an L&T team has been seeking an appointment with him for the past one month but has been unsuccessful so far. Miffed by the indifferent response, the company recently asked a senior cabinet minister to prevail over Kiran Kumar and ensure that he meets the company’s representatives. According to the minister, the CM assured him that he would meet the L&T team after the ongoing Telangana strike ends.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Metro - Boon or Bane?
Metro conundrum By Kingshuk Nag (The Times of India, Hyderabad, 29 July 2011)
Will Hyderabad’s proposed metro be a boon or a bane? Opinion is divided on this issue. Though when the project was first conceived most people were enthusiastic and saw in the metro rail a symbol of development that Hyderabad was aspiring for, these days there are a lot who are apprehensive. “How many times will I have to give up land? First they took some land away from me for road expansion. Now they will want land for metro rail. Is this fair?” asked a businessman with an outlet on SP Road. “As it is, the traffic is bad on Begumpet road. What will happen when the metro works begins? How long will I take to reach office from home and vice versa” asks an executive who lives in Habsiguda and works in Banjara Hills. “The entire commercial area of Ameerpet will be destroyed apart from Sultan Bazar. The whole city will be disfigured. What we will have after metro rail will be Hyderabad in some other form,” says a heritage activist. These are all valid points.
But equally troubled are the prime contractors of the project, the well known Larsen & Toubro. Though the financial closure of the project happened in early March and the company deposited a performance guarantee of Rs 360 crore, the land required for the project is not being made available to them. Naturally, the government is unable to persuade various agencies to part with land. L & T is worried because with each passing day its costs are escalating. The company has borrowed large sums from the market and will borrow more. The interest burden on the borrowed portion is increasing and with the rates hardening, future borrowings will be more costly. As per the concession agreement with L & T, the government has to pay a hefty penalty for every day’s delay in handing over the 269 acres of land at various places that it has to the company. A huge amount is already due to L & T on this account. But L & T knows that the state’s exchequer is empty and it is not a position to pay up.
Kiran Kumar Reddy garu, when asked on this question, is very sensitive. “All decisions have been taken, we are going ahead,” he says a trifle aggressively. The aggression may be to cover up the realization that he has been put in a spot by predecessor K Rosaiah. With the Satyam scam and collapse of Maytas, the metro rail project went phut. It also became clear that Ramalinga Raju had conceived the metro rail as a real estate project than an urban transportation venture. This was a golden opportunity for Rosaiah. He could have realigned the routes of the project to take into account concerns now being raised. But instead of having a relook he blindly offered the same Maytas metro rail project to L & T (of course the financials changed). He obviously allowed himself to be persuaded by the same forces who were behind Raju. The result of the Rosaiah inaction is the mess we see. And this is just the beginning, what with the project now clearly taking a Telangana vs anti Telangana turn.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
This is good news - CR
Metro rail hits MIM road block at Malakpet
HYDERABAD: Even before civil works could begin, metro rail has hit a roadblock at Chadarghat. According to sources, Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen(MIM) brought pressure on the GHMC to stop acquiring properties it had identified on the 2-km stretch between Mahatma Gandhi Central Bus Station (Imliban) and Malakpet.
The GHMC has identified 67 buildings for takeover but it could get control of only five of them till date. The acquisition process came to a standstill five months ago.
The property owners said that the GHMC had offered to pay them much less than the market value, hence they declined to part with their buildings. They say that most of the buildings are commercial in nature and form the only source of income for them. Read the full news item in the Times of India, Hyderabad (29 June 2011) at -
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