L&T has announced that it is no longer associated with the Metro Rail project. There have been news reports saying that the company has already written a formal letter to the Telangana government regarding the same.
But in a rather interesting development, the latest story doing rounds in Telangana power corridors is that Chandra Babu is creating trouble for T government through L&T.
After putting pressure on L&T, Babu has made sure that the Company withdraws from the Metro Rail project, his detractors now allege.
The latest reason stated by L&T for withdrawing from the Project is bifurcation.
The Company has clearly stated that the issues arising due to bifurcation are behind their decision. But if one looks at it, bifurcation is not a new issue.
The problem was at its peak when L&T put the first pillar for the Metro Rail project. In fact, united Andhra Pradesh was dealing with the issue of bifurcation for the past five years. So, did the Company did not see bifurcation coming back then?
Incidentally, even after united Andhra Pradesh was formally bifurcated, L&T’s chief engineer had given a newspaper statement saying that the Company would go ahead with the project irrespective of whether the state was divided into two or many pieces.
“Metro will not stop no matter how many pieces the state is divided into,” they maintained at the time.
So many are questioning as to how L&T realized the side-effects of bifurcation now? Did they come up with a cost estimate and did that result in their new decision? Or did they have a different calculation back then and do they have another figure right now?
No matter what their reasons are, it is totally irresponsible of the company to pull out of the Metro Rail project which was meant to impact the lives of millions of people commuting the city.
However, the Telangana leaders are decided that the Company’s latest behavior is the direct consequence of Chandra Babu’s game plan.
It is a widely known fact that Chandra Babu enjoys a very good relationship with the L&T Company. In the past, Larsen & Toubro had built the NTR Trust Bhavan as a gift owing to the mutual goodwill shared by the Company and Babu.
So, it is now being alleged that Chandra Babu is now using his connections with the Company to arm twist KCR government. Well, wonder if that is indeed the inside story?
