Hyderabad: The city unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has alleged that Hyderbad Metro Rail Limited had breached its agreement and hiked ticket fares to Rs 60 while it had agreed to Rs 19 while signing the deal.
Mr M. Srinivas, CPM city secretary, quoting from a purported letter written by Mr Gajendra Haldea, who involved in the Metro Rail agreement, claimed that the fare hike had violated the terms of the Viability Gap Funding, under which the Metro Rail had received Rs 1,458 crore from the Centre. Since the terms had been violated, the Centre is duty-bound to recover it along with interest.
Mr Srinivas said that the increase in user charges was said to have been done under the garb of change in law. However, Article 41 of the concession agreement provides that if the concessionaire suffers financial loss due to change in law, it would be compensated by the state government. “Conversely, if the concessionaire makes any financial gain due to change in law, he must reimburse the same to the state government,” Mr Srinivas said.
The state has not enforced the provisions of this Article, and has allowed the concessionaire to allegedly unlawfully misappropriate large unearned gains which legitimately belong to the state or the users, Mr Srinivas claimed.He said that the violation of the law had put a burden on commuters whose ticket fares had been “unlawfully” hiked.
He claimed that the Centre was told that the fares were hiked due to poor occupancy rates, but Metro Rail was claiming record footfall. “Similarly, the authorities has overused land, breaching the agreement at very low prices", he claimed.
