K T Rama Rao proved to be no match to Akbaruddin Owaisi on the 'Metro Rail' issue. For long, the MIM had been asking for a realignment of the Metro Rail in Old City as the original design would impact many religious and heritage structures. But the government had categorically refused to do so.
Fed up with this approach of the government, a charged –up Akbaruddin came to the Assembly with a well-researched file on the whole ‘Metro Rail project ‘labeling the agreement between the TRS and L&T, the biggest scam ever.
He reeled out facts supporting his accusations. Reeling out the numbers, Owaisi said the concessionaire would get to exploit 18.5 million sft of commercial space, passenger fares, parking fee and advertisement revenue earned from the metro rail infrastructure such as its pillars.
On the other hand, the state government is bound to provide 269 acres of land for free and also spend money on land acquisition and creation of associated facilities.
Owaisi said, the concessionaire was set to rake in a whopping Rs 1.18 lakh crore over a period of 35 years as per the agreement. This projected revenue, Owaisi demanded, must be shared between the state government, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and the project developer L&T.
Refuting KTR’s statement that Metro Rail projects take a long time to break even, Owaisi demanded to know why anyone would invest thousands of crores for a loss making venture.
Having no answers to Owaisi’s questions, KTR offered to hold a meeting with MLA’s on the issue of realignment of the project in the Old City.
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