Hyderabad: Continuing his attack against Union minister G Kishan Reddy, chief minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday accused him of stalling the release of Rs 13,600 crore loan the Indian Railways Finance Corporation had agreed to give to Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited to fund the takeover of phase-I of the metro rail project from L&T.
"Today is the last day for the release of Rs 13,600 crore. All agreements were signed by the state govt, HMRL, IRFC and even central govt representatives were involved in the exercise. But Kishan Reddy met Union ministers Manoharlal Khattar, Ashwini Vaishnaw and others and stalled the release of the amount. After Kishan Reddy met Union civil aviation minister Rammohan Naidu, the works on Mamnoor airport at Warangal have also slowed down," alleged Revanth.
Revanth also demanded that Kishan clarify whether the Union government would bear 50% cost of the Hyderabad metro rail phase-II expansion as promised earlier, based on which the state govt started the takeover process.
"If the NDA govt at the Centre does not come forward to share 50% of the cost, let them give a no-objection certificate (NOC). The Telangana govt will construct phase-II with 100% equity without the Centre's share. Nearly Rs 40,000 crore would be required and we will avail long-term loans at an interest rate of 4%," Revanth told reporters at the secretariat.
The Telangana govt followed the advice of the central govt and fulfilled other conditions such as taking over of metro rail phase-I so that phase-II could be taken up, providing counter guaranty of the state govt and RBI for repayment of Rs 13,600 crore if HMRL failed to pay back. "But Kishan Reddy prevented the Rs 13,600 crore loan from being released because he feared the Congress government would receive credit for the project, which, according to him, could hamper the BJP's political growth in Telangana," claimed Revanth.
The chief minister further alleged that BRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao and working president K T Rama Rao were the masterminds behind the alleged conspiracy and that Kishan Reddy was cooperating with them.
To clear the L&T Metro's loan amount of Rs 13,600 crore from banks at an interest rate of 8.25%, he said the government convinced IRFC for funding and secured a loan of Rs 13,600 crore from a Japanese entity at an interest rate of 4 per cent.
"We have already paid Rs 1,400 crore from the state govt side. We also submitted a letter confirming the Reserve Bank's approval, yet the loan transfer was blocked. Kishan Reddy should take the responsibility of release of funds to the state government from the IRFC. The metro rail expansion project would be covering the jurisdiction of four BJP MPs including Kishan Reddy's Lok Sabha segments," he said.
The Centre had approved Rs 3.15 lakh crore loans through PFC and RFC without any guarantee during the previous BRS govt led by KCR. The loans were provided at a huge interest rate of 9% to 15%. The Centre is discriminating against Telangana. It approved metro rail projects in Ahmedabad, UP and Vizag recently. "We are not politicising the issue. Our goal is to take over the first phase of the metro and complete phase-II," Revanth said.
He added that Kishan Reddy was the only Union cabinet minister from Telangana, and had the responsibility of ensuring necessary funds for metro expansion, because Bandi Sanjay is a minister of state at the centre. "I am directly blaming Kishan Reddy for his conspiracy and I have the evidence," Revanth claimed.
The chief minister said he will give a detailed power-point presentation at the secretariat to Kishan Reddy and BJP MPs to clarify any doubts regarding the metro project. The state government purchased L&T's metro rail phase-I project worth Rs 30,000 crore for Rs 15,000 crore after negotiations.
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About the Author: Roushan Ali, having 30 years of experience, is covering the govt, chief minister's office and politics as a senior assistant editor of The Times of India. During the three decades of journalism career he had initially covered important citizen-centric and infrastructure beats like urban development, water and electricity supply, traffic and transport, cantonment, education, welfare and rural development.
