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The Andhra Pradesh government would take a decision on whether to continue with the Maytas Infra Ltd-led consortium for the Hyderabad Metro Rail project by the first week of July, according to municipal administration and urban development minister Anam Ramnarayana Reddy.
Disclosing this to the media, he said a meeting would be held shortly and various milestones achieved in the project ever since it was awarded to Maytas Infra would be reviewed.
The concession agreement and its clauses would be reviewed at the meeting, said a senior official, adding the government was serious about the clauses and there was no question of taking a soft stance.
Also, the surveys, reports and other documents prepared for the project so far would not go waste even if Maytas was disengaged from the project owing to its poor financial health, he said.
The government is already weighing various options, like retendering the metro project or taking it up on its own with some funds from the Centre under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, in case Maytas fails to execute the project.
Maytas, promoted by the family of Satyam Computer Services founder B Ramalinga Raju, had failed to achieve financial closure for the Rs 12,100 crore (Rs 121 billion) elevated metro rail project in March and sought an extension of the deadline by six months.
The consortium committed to contributing Rs 30,311 crore (Rs 303.11 billion) during the 34 year concession period, including Rs 11 crore (Rs 110 million) on agreement, Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) on financial closure, Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) in the fourth year, Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) each in the seventh, eighth and ninth years and Rs 1,750 crore (Rs 17.5 billion) per annum from the 18th year till the 34th year.
According to the concession agreement, the consortium has to pay Rs 240 crore (Rs 2.4 billion) to the state government if it fails to achieve financial closure within the stipulated time.
