Hyderabad: The effect of the coronavirus pandemic and the five month lockdown has landed the Hyderabad Metro Rail in deep financial distress as its total losses so far have touched Rs 4 billion.
As the lockdown was continuing and all the trains confined to the depots, the losses continue to mount at the rate of Rs 450 million per month.
Hyderabad Metro is a public private partnership project, managed by the L&T Hyderabad Metro Company, but the state government is now mulling with the idea of coming to the rescue of the company by extending financial relief and subsidies, a senior official said.
As the work on all the three corridors had almost completed and all the route, except a small segment in the old city, was thrown open, before the lockdown, the daily volume of passengers was between 400,000 to half a million. But now all the Metro stations remain deserted as the services had come to a standstill.
No posibility
As more and more case of COVID-19 were being reported everyday, there was no possibility of re-opening the Metro in the near future, officials said.
Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Industries and Information Technology said, that if L&T seeks financial help, the government will provide financial relief and subsidies for the number of days the Metro was out of service. “According to a clause in the contract signed by the government and the company, L&T is eligible for financial help in times like these”.
Even before the lockdown came into effect, the Hyderabad Metro was running in losses. Officials say the L&T Hyderabad Metro was paying an annual interest of Rs 13 billion against the loans it had raised to build the massive infrastructure project. Due to the delay in the execution of the project, its cost had also escalated, touching Rs 210 billion.
Next phase
“Just to reach break even point, Hyderabad Metro should have daily ridership of 900,000 per day for a year”, official said.
L&T and state government officials were hopeful that during the next phase of easing the lockdown, permission will be granted to restart the Metro trains in Delhi and other parts of India.
However the operators will have to carry out several measures and spend more money to ensure the safety of passengers. They include measures to sanitize the stations, elevators and coaches and ensue social distancing. The number of passengers in a coach will also be reduced. To reduce the crowds, Hyderabad Metro is also planning to increase the frequency of trains.
