Telangana Govt Takes Full Control of Hyderabad Metro Rail, Buys out L&T Stake
Hyderabad, Apr 29 (TNT): The Telangana Government on Wednesday took full control of the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) after entering into a formal agreement with Larsen & Toubro (L&T), marking a significant shift in the management of urban transport infrastructure in the state.
Under the agreement, the government, through Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL), acquired 100 per cent equity shares held by L&T’s arm L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited for a value of ₹1,461.47 crore.
The agreement was signed at a high-level meeting held at the State Secretariat in the presence of Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary (MA&UD) Jayesh Ranjan, and HMRL Managing Director Sarfaraz Ahmed, along with representatives of L&T.
The deal documents were signed by Sarfaraz Ahmed for HMRL, D.K. Sen for L&T Ltd, and K.V.B. Reddy for LTMRHL.
As part of the takeover, the state government will facilitate refinancing of LTMRHL’s debt amounting to ₹13,538.53 crore, which was earlier backed by L&T.
IDBI Capital acted as the transaction advisor, while Saraf and Partners provided legal counsel.
Officials said the takeover of Phase-I operations is expected to improve coordination in planning, execution, and service delivery, while also aiding the development of proposed Phase-II metro expansion.
The Hyderabad Metro Rail, operational since November 2017, spans around 69 km across three corridors and currently serves nearly 4.5 lakh passengers daily. Since its launch, over 86 crore passengers have used the service.
The government said it plans to introduce more passenger-friendly initiatives and strengthen the network to make it more efficient and reliable.
Earlier, L&T Chairman and Managing Director S. N. Subrahmanyan met Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and discussed future aspects of metro operations ahead of the agreement.
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