Hyderabad Metro Rail Project First Phase became Operational last year. The revenues are sending a chill down the spine of the state government and the concessionaire. After initial joyrides, the passengers’ count has come down drastically.
This pushed L&T to distance itself from the new Metro expansion projects of the Telangana Government. And now, the Union Government is pushing the same Public-Private Partnership Model for Amaravati and Vishakapatnam Metro Rail Projects.
The Center wants to evade its share from the projects as mandated by the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act following this model. But this will be catastrophic for the projects as the model has failed in a big city like Hyderabad.
There is no way it will succeed in developing cities like Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam. Better Mass Transit Systems are the responsibility of the governments. They cannot evade that in the name of the finances.
