Financial closure for Hyderabad Metro to be dalyed

Hyderabad: Maytas Infra needs more time for achieving financial closure for the Rs 12,132-crore Hyderabad metro rail project.

The six-month deadline ends today and the company is also expected to submit bank guarantees.

Maytas Infra requires three more months to achieve this major milestone agreed upon in the concession agreement.

The company, which is the lead partner of the consortium that includes Nava Bharat Ventures, IL&FS and Ital Thai, mentioned that the global recession and the consequent credit squeeze in national and international capital markets has created a force majeure situation.

In addition, it maintained that a public interest litigation filed against the company is having a deleterious effect on the company’s ability to achieve financial closure.

The metro project has made good progress since the signing of the concession agreement. These include topographic surveys, alignment designs, architectural layouts of stations and preliminary designs for civil works.

The company has also submitted its designs to Railways and appointed a consultant for engineering and project management and finalised tender documents for rail systems.

Recently, a Government petition to supersede the Maytas Infra board was negated by the Company Law Board after hearing the company’s view point.

However, the CLB suggested appointment of directors including Chairman to guide the company through the crisis. Former ICAI chairman Mr Ved Jain and tax lawyer Mr O.P.Vaish were appointed as directors.