Hyderabad: As many as eight companies or
consortia, including Larsen & Toubro and Reliance ADAG, have
filed pre-qualification bids for developing the Rs 12,132
crore Hyderabad Metro Rail Project.
Other bidders are Lanco-OHL (Spain) consortium, GVK-
Samsung (South Korea) consortium, Essar-Leighton
(Australia)-Gayatri-VNR consortium, Transstroy-OJSC (Russia)
-CR 18 (China)-BEML consortium and Soma-Strabag (Austria)
consortium.
The state government invited fresh bids for the project
after the Maytas Infrastructure-led consortium backed out of
the project late last year after the turmoil in Maytas, caused
by the Satyam fiasco. Maytas Infra, which was promoted by the
kin of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, went into crisis after
Raju's confession of multi-crore rupee scam in the IT company.
"The pre-qualification documents will be evaluated by the
Andhra Pradesh government with the help of four main
consultants Deloitte (Financial), Luthra and Luthra (Legal),
Fortress (Evaluation) and Barasyl (Technical). Short-listing
of the bidders will be completed in about 12 days," state
Municipal Administration Minister Aanam Ramanarayana Reddy
told a press conference here this evening.
The "good response" from bidders to the HMR Project
indicated that Hyderabad has not lost its 'Brand Equity' as
far as the Metro was concerned, in the backdrop of the ongoing
strife in the state over the demand for creation of a separate
Telangana state, he said.
Ramanarayana, however, maintained that Hyderabad?s 'brand
equity' was not lost in the Metro’s case.
The due date for submission of financial bids by the
qualified bidders for HMR Project would be April 9.
"The financial bids will be finalised the same day and
the new concessionaire will be in place by the end of April.
The ground works of the project are expected to commence by
October this year. The HMR Project will be completed in four
years," the minister added.
The project was being taken up on a design, build,
finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis in public-private
partnership mode, Ramanarayana Reddy said.
He said that up to 40 per cent (Rs 4,853 crore) of total
project cost could be given as viability gap funding by the
state and Central governments subject to competitive bidding.
The Government of India has sanctioned Rs 2,363 crore as
its share under the VGF scheme for the project.
PTI
First Published: Saturday, January 16, 2010, 21:44