The Hyderabad Metro is the world’s largest metro project was designed, built, financed, and operating in a public-private partnership (PPP) mode. L&T is a major stakeholder in Hyderabad Metro with a 90 per cent share with the remaining 10 per cent owned by the Telangana state government.
Recently in an interview, L&T’s president, whole-time director, and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), R Shankar Raman, mentioned that due to the free bus ride scheme, introduced by Govt. of Telangana, the ridership of the metro has become very less and there is a clear gender divide in the usage of the public transport. He added that women have moved away from the metro and are occupying busses more despite no increase in the number of the latter. This has led to men moving away from busses to metro, he added.
The daily passenger count of the metro has declined from its peak of 550,000 in November 2023 to 480,000 now. The financials of the metro have been a concern for the company and it will look at monetizing the asset after FY26 as part of its non-core business plans.
The company also said it plans to monetize some of the real estate attached with the metro. L&T, which has a 65-year concession to run the system, received a Rs 3,000-crore soft loan from the state government.
L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail has a debt burden of 13,000 crore, this is apart from the Rs 2,000 crore loss the company has suffered in the past few years, and it plans to cut its debt down to Rs 8,000 crore.
Larsen & Toubro will slow down its divestment plans in 2024-25 and will primarily focus on restructuring the debt and improving ridership in Hyderabad Metro, Raman had said.
