Public transport and reducing private vehicles is the only solution for ever expanding cities in which the first and last mile connectivity along with good sidewalks is crucial, said Hyderabad Metro Rail managing director N.V.S Reddy on Thursday.
And, despite running into “huge losses”, L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) has been operating the Hyderabad Metro which is the world’s largest public private partnership project. This has to be taken into account before any criticism is levelled on the concessionnaire, he said.
The MD was addressing a gathering at the Parade Grounds metro station where an electric auto feeder service ‘MetroRide’ was launched. “I will give it any writing, any other organisation would have ran away with this kind of losses. About ₹20,000 crore has been invested with more than 80% coming from the private and the government will have to bear this cost if L&TMRH leaves. We are ready to open their books to show how much of losses they are going through. Governments cannot provide all these facilities, hence the private sector needs to be encouraged” in building infrastructure,” he said.
