Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said if L&T is keen on exiting the Hyderabad Metro project due to the state government's free bus ride scheme, they are welcome to do so.
Reddy said his government will continue with the Congress guarantee of free bus rides to women and transgenders. The CM said his government will look for another player, who would be interested in operating it should L&T opt-out. There is nothing much to worry about, he told a bunch of publications in an informal session.
Reddy was reacting to a BT TV exclusive where L&T president, whole-time director & CFO, R Shankar Raman said the firm will look at selling off Hyderabad Metro post 2026 due to low ridership, adding that the free bus ride scheme had made ridership "less interesting".
L&T owns 90 per cent of the metro project while the Telangana government owns the remaining 10 per cent. The company has a 65-year concession to run the metro system.
Raman termed it as not sustainable. "Some of these sops are done on the back of political promises, which is not going to help the state finances because what is the point in making the state's transport corporation go bankrupt...there's no fun in doing that," Raman said. He said while private capital is needed to create a modern, zero-polluting transport system, money is being spent on making people use polluting buses.
He told BT TV that L&T had successfully negotiated a Rs 3,000 crore soft loan with the Telangana government to be repaid over without interest. The company was also planning to monetise some of the real estate attached to the metro system. "My assessment is that when we sit down for the FY26-FY31 plan, this could be an asset to be monetised in that period because it would then be of interest to investors, particularly the pension funds and global funds given the 65-year concession," he told BT TV.