Mega infrastructure projects planned for Hyderabad await BRICS Bank nod

Hyderabad: Mega infrastructure projects planned for Hyderabad such as skyways, multi-grade separators, multi-level flyovers and suspension bridges are in trouble as the BRICS Bank is yet to sanction the loans.

The Telangana state government had planned to seek nearly Rs 70,000 crore from BRICS Bank in China. The government is largely dependent on loans to fund these projects, which require massive investments within three years.

It’s been nearly nine months since Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao visited China and held discussions with BRICS officials for loans, but there has been no progress since then.

While the bank disbursed its first tranche of loan to India recently, Telangana was missing from the list. The first loan of $250 million disbursed by BRICS Bank went to Karnataka to fund a solar power project.

The bank, also called New Development Bank (NDB), approved its first package of loans worth $811 million in mid-April. These were sanctioned to fund four projects in India, Brazil, China and South Africa, all in the renewal energy development sphere.

There was no mention of sanctioning loans to infrastructure projects as sought by the Telangana government. The bank also did not clarify when the next board meeting would be held wherein the loan application would be taken up.

Sources in the Finance department said the state government had sent proposals to the Centre on securing BRICS loan in January this year. This is because the bank takes a nod from the Centre before approving huge loans to any state government.

The state government is now trying to ascertain from the Union Finance ministry whether it had received any communication from BRICS Bank regarding the loan to Telangana.

"Once we receive a communication from the Union Finance ministry, we will take a call on how to proceed further on securing the BRICS loan. The CM is expected to write to the PM and FM, seeking the Centre's assistance to secure loans from BRICS Bank at the earliest," said a finance official.

None of the infra projects in the city has made any headway due to financial crunch as the government needs to shell out huge compensation to owners to acquire costly properties in core areas of the city to build flyovers, skyways etc.

Contractors too are shying away from taking up these projects doubting the repayment capacity of the government after works are completed.