Times of
India: Gurgaon: Sunday, September 15, 2019.
Amid
desperate efforts to keep Rapid Metro running, a group of RTI activists on
Saturday asked the Haryana government why it had made changes to the route.
Rapid Metro has struggled with ridership.
Citing
a 2016 report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the activists pointed out
that though the government got a survey done by RITES, it changed the route
without consulting the state-run engineering consultancy company. The cost,
which was supposed to be Rs 403 crore, went up to Rs 1,200 crore for the 5.1 km
stretch
In
fact, in its report, the CAG said that in March 2009, an expression of interest
(EoI) was received from Rapid Metro Gurgaon Ltd (RMGL), which proposed an
alternative route of 5.1 km at an estimated project cost of Rs 900 crore.
The
concession agreement was signed between HSVP (formerly Huda) and RMGL in
December 2009.
“Huda
had not stipulated in the EoI nor did it subsequently seek at any stage the
detail for the alternative metro route of 5.1km though it got technical aspects
of the project verified by DMRC (Delhi Metro Rail Corporation). After
completion of the project, the concessionaire reported the project cost at Rs
1,088 crore. In the absence of any prior estimate of cost or financial
viability, the reasonableness of this project cost could not be assessed,” the
CAG report said.
The
CAG report also mentioned how Huda’s signing of the contract resulted in “undue
benefit” to the concessionaire of Rapid Metro. It cited a clause in the
concession agreement under which Huda agreed to take over the complete system
in case of termination of the contract.
“Huda
shall pay to the lenders of the project, as per financial documents, an amount
equal to 80% debt due as termination payment. Huda had entered into a
concession contract assuming 80% of liabilities of the concessionaire in the
event of termination of the contract and default of the concessionaire as to
the costing of the project and extent of potential liabilities,” the report
added.
“This
clause cleanly means that if the project is successful then the credit goes to
the promoters, while in case of failure, the government will bear losses,”
alleged RTI activist Harinder Dhingra.
“The
government is playing into the hands of a few companies. The Haryana government
made selective changes to give benefits to the Rapid Metro concessionaire.
There was no thought put into the project before accepting the terms of the
deal,” said Ravinder Yadav, another RTI activist.
When
contacted, D Suresh, the chief administrator of HSVP, refused to comment,
saying “the matter is in court”.
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