HYDERABAD: The project cost for the 60-km-long first phase of the Hyderabad's Mass Rapid Transit System has been revised to Rs.7,986 crores, up from the earlier figure of Rs.6,366 crores after taking into account current prices and debt servicing.

Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration Department, S.P. Singh, said the cost component was arrived at after receiving the detailed project report from Delhi Metro Rail Corporation for building the Tarnaka-HiTec City line last month.

The capital cost also includes various taxes and duties amounting to Rs.1,300 crores. Each kilometre of MRTS is estimated to cost between Rs.130-135 crores, he said.

Mr. Singh was addressing reporters after conclusion of `MRTS Investors Meet' along with Project Director N.V.S. Reddy and other officials on Friday. All six potential international consortia developers short-listed for the project participated in the meet.

Central and State Governments were together expected to bridge the viability gap funding up to 35 to 38 per cent of the total capital investment for the project. The remainder would have to be raised by the private developer, he said.

"We have requested 25 per cent capital infusion from the Centre and rest has to be borne by the State which could be in the form of land, advertisement, right-of-way and terminal stations. The Centre's grant would be released as per the works progress," he said.

Separate bids

There was a possibility of separate bids being called for the three routes (others being Miyapur-Chaitanyapuri & Secunderabad-Falaknuma lines). Mr. Singh said the developers, to be finalised in October-November, requested for individual routes but integration of lines and managing transfer stations jointly have to be considered.

He said response from short-listed developers was "overwhelming ". Issues like concession period, bids, status of infrastructure project, technology, land development and fair box collection were discussed at the meeting.

"We are confident that Hyderabad Metro is viable as a lot of preparatory work has already been done. We are ready to take off in December-January," he said.

Mr. Reddy said Hyderabad Metro was unique as it was being taken up under the Build, Operate and Transfer mode under Public-Private Partnership. Work will start "simultaneously" in as many places as possible.

Special Chief Secretary (Finance) P. Ramakanth Reddy, Special Secretary (Infrastructure) K.V. Rao, Secretary (Legal) Madhusudhan Reddy, MA&UD Secretary Veena Ish, MRTS Advisor Stanley Babu and MCH Commissioner Sanjay Jaju were present.

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