When Maytas Infra bagged the Rs 12,200cr Hyderabad metro rail (HMR) contract last year, there was admiration as well as questions. While the consortiums led by Essar and Reliance Infra sought ?viability gap? funding of Rs 3,100cr and Rs 2,811cr respectively, the Maytas led consortium made an extraordinarily low bid. It sought a ?zero? grant while offering to build the metro on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, agreeing to pay the government ?different amounts at different periods of concession?. Our established metro man, E Sreedharan, expressed many reservations about this bid in a letter to the Planning Commission. One of them being ?worldwide, the experience has been that no metro project has succeeded on BOT basis?.

Sreedharan also questioned the allocation of 296 acres of prime land to the BOT operator for commercial exploitation, which he argued was like selling family silver and which he predicted would lead to a big political scam. Further, he charged: ?the BOT operator has a hidden agenda which appears to be to extend the metro network to a large tract of his private land holdings so as to reap a windfall profit of four to five times the land price?. While DMRC withdrew as consultant to HMR, there were some reports that the project plan was being altered to move the metro routes closer to Maytas-owned real estate.

Sreedharan got criticised for what some thought were sour grapes. And as late as a few days back, the Andhra Pradesh CM argued that Satyam?s failed acquisition of Maytas didn?t change anything. ?Satyam is Satyam. Maytas is Maytas. Right now, we do not see any problem. Maytas will do it (metro)?, YSR Reddy said. But following Ramalingam Raju?s spectacular confession, the state government is being forced to reexamine Maytas?s functioning. Whatever such an investigation uncovers, mobilising funds for the HMR, anyways facing trouble because of the downturn, just got even harder. Other Maytas projects, like the Machilipatnam port and the Gulbarga airport, will also find themselves under the scanner now.

renuka.bisht@expressindia.com