Fresh bids for H’bad Metro on July 16

After scrapping the contract given to the troubled Maytas Infra to build the Hyderabad Metro Rail project, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to call for fresh global bids for the project. It would formally notify the project for bids on July 16.

“Our intention is to finalise an agency for taking up the metro rail project by November 15. The chief minister (Y S Rajsekhara Reddy) wants the project to be up and running in the next three to four years,” municipal administration and urban development minister A Ramanarayan Reddy said.

The government has also decided not to accord any special status to the short-listed bidders in the project. While a Maytas-led consortium was the winning bidder for the project, a consortium with NCC as a key player and another led by Reliance Energy were the next lowest bidders.While considering various options before scrapping the Maytas agreement, the state government was keen on inviting the other short-listed bidders and asking them to take up the project. However, NCC backed out in the initial stage since it felt the consortium would not be able to match the costs mentioned by Maytas.

Maytas pursued the Rs 12,000-crore project for long though it was evident that the company would not be able to raise the funds required for grounding the project. In fact, it was also trying to rope in Reliance Infra as a new partner to retain the project. However, Reliance was keen on re-bidding rather than joining Maytas.

The government on Monday also increased the performance guarantee that has to be submitted from 0.5% of the project cost to 1%.