L&T’s Hyderabad Metro delayed by three years

Infrastructure major L&T is likely to complete its first ever metro rail project, coming up in Hyderabad, by 2017, three years later than the initial deadline of 2014.

The first phase covering about 8 km of the 72-km-long system is likely to be operational by 2015.

“The project works are progressing as expected and we should be able to play coaches on the elevated rail system in the first route by 2015,” said Vivek B Gadgil, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd’s CEO and MD.

The project cost was initially pegged at about Rs16,000 crore. However, delays in land acquisitions and key approvals will inflate the figure, Gadgil said. It would remain dynamic till all the key agreements with vendors are complete.

“We are talking to vendors for various supplies and the cost of project would ultimately depend on the price at which we conclude the contracts. So, it would be too early for us to quantify the cost or the escalation,” he said.

L&T Metro is currently at an advanced stage of finalising the vendors for the rolling stock. It is talking to Bombardier, a joint venture of Hyundai Rotem of South Korea, BEML of India, CAF of Spain and CSR of China.

“Technical discussions are over with the vendors and we are about to start the commercial part. We estimate the rolling stock to cost around Rs1,700 crore,” Gadgil said.

The company, he said, is confident of minimising the cost by seeking competitive pricing from the vendors.
It has also commissioned works at the country’s largest casting yard spread over 72 acres at Uppal near Hyderabad. The yard would be used to pre-cast several concrete structures required for building the elevated rail system. Except the piers, most of the structures are being pre-cast and shifted to the construction site.