Hyderabad Metro Phase-II expected to carry eight lakh passengers on completion; Cost per km. of Metro Line is ₹318 crore

Around eight lakh passengers are estimated to take Hyderabad Metro Rail in the Phase-II routes, once the works complete. The image is used for representative purposes only.
| Photo Credit: NAGARA GOPAL

Hyderabad Airport Metro Limited (HAML) has “conservatively” estimated that once completed, the phase-II metro rail routes can easily carry up to to eight passengers a day and this could go up to 10 lakh too, said Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy on Tuesday (November 26, 2024).

NVS Reddy, MD, HAML & HMR addressing a press conference media on Metro Phase-II project and successful completion of seven years of Metro Rail operations, at Metro Rail Bhavan, Begumpet in Hyderabad on Tuesday (November 26, 2024).
| Photo Credit:
RAMAKRISHNA G

It includes 3.70 lakh passengers for Nagole-Airport corridor, 92,000 for Raidurg-Kokapet, 72,000 for MGBS-Chandrayanagutta, 1.65 lakh for Miyapur-Patancheru and 97,000 for LB Nagar-Hayatnagar. “There will be financial viability from initial period itself as high financial rate of interest and economic rate of return is expected for phase two,” he asserted.

Number of people estimated to take Hyderabad Metro Rail in Phase-II routes.
| Photo Credit:
By Arrangement

Telangana Government’s proposed joint venture project (50:50) with the Central Government for the project means it will have to invest about ₹1,500 to ₹2,000 crore a year during the construction phase out of the overall financial outlay of ₹7,313 crore as it will have to bear the 30% of the total cost of ₹24,269 crore.

Cost of various corridors under Phase-II of Hyderabad Metro Rail
| Photo Credit:
By Arrangement

The Centre will bear ₹4,230 crore or 18% of the project cost besides giving a sovereign guarantee which will help take loans from multilateral agencies like Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and others at a low interest rate of 2%, he said.

The loan component is 40% or ₹11,653 crore with the State Government having 40 years repayment period with a moratorium benefit for a few years. Another ₹1,000 crore worth of works are to be taken up under the private public partnership mode which is equal to 4% of the cost.

Cost could have escalated to ₹700 Crore -₹1000 crore if Metro lines went underground

Due to the available Right of Way (RoW) for most of the proposed corridors and being an elevated line for a majority of the alignment, the cost per kilometre has been worked out to be ₹318 crore, which could have escalated to ₹700 crore -₹1000 crore if it went underground, explained Mr. Reddy.

Cost of ongoing Metro works in various cities

The phase two works cost is the least expensive in comparison to the ongoing metro rail works in other cities like Bengaluru ₹373 crore-₹569 crore a km, Chennai ₹619 crore – ₹774 crore a km and Mumbai ₹543 crore – ₹1,500 crore. The high cost in these cities is also because of the land acquisition, terrain and underground construction, he said.

A JV with the Centre makes the project more viable economically and commercially profitable with the capital investment coming at a low interest rate, he said and contrasted with the 69 km first phase HMR works taken up at a total investment of ₹22,148 crore with State Government pitching in with ₹2,970 crore, Centre’s ₹1,204 crore as viability gap funding and ₹17,974 crore or 81% by the private sector L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH).

The MD has pointed out that L&TMRH took a loan of ₹11,000 crore from the public sector banks led by State Bank of India at 10% interest rate then since the sovereign guarantees for going to the multilateral agencies is not available to the private sector.

Metro lines to Shameerpet or Medchal not under Phase-II

HAML has also begun survey works for the 40 km proposed line from international airport to Fourth City-Skill University while it has not considered other metro line extensions towards Shameerpet or Medchal and other places for phase-II because the RoW is currently not available and the Centre has made it mandatory for project evaluation after 2017, he added.