Urban Transport Infrastructure November 2018 Urban Transport Infra November 2018 | Page 40
Interview
Detailed
Project
Report (DPR) of
the
Hyderabad
Metro Rail Phase II
is almost ready. It
will be submitted
soon
for
final
approval from the
Government.
Mr. NVS Reddy, Managing Director, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (Photo: HMRL)
With over 33 years of managerial and administrative experience, Mr. NVS Reddy
held several senior Government positions. During his varied assignments, he
contributed to systemic improvements in Indian Railways and won many awards.
Presently as the Managing Director of Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, he is heading
the mega Hyderabad Metro Rail project (72 km). Implementation of this project
with an estimated cost of Rs.14,132 crore (USD 2.11 billion) under public-private
partnership (PPP) with innovative financial engineering is his bold initiative in mass
transit systems and infrastructure development. It is the world’s largest Metro rail
project being implemented in PPP mode. Here are excerpts from his interview:
What are the key concerns you faced
while making the Metro what it is
today?
Mr. NVS Reddy: Every day there were
agitations and we needed police
protection and some of the debates
where like?” (something missing
here). When a religious group stopped
us, the lower communities were the
first ones who supported and stood by
us. Surprisingly some engineers,
unfortunately, supported this, to stall
the project. Nobody can teach you to
handle these kinds of situations. A
religious structure would take 1 to 1.5
years. Bengaluru metro got stalled for
6 months due to the presence of the
Ambedkar statue. But here in
Hyderabad, HMRL was able to build
that confidence among different caste
and religious groups. Even today,
people
of
Kukatpally
express
gratitude. My first victory was
Kanchalamma temple near Nagole
when the entire community stood by
us. We had to negotiate about 30
religious structures.
WWW.URBANTRANSPORTNEWS.COM
You have time and again said that
people with vested interests are trying
to stall the project. Who are they and
what were their vested interests?
Mr. Reddy: I had to acquire 3,000
properties for this project, lawyers
were going around, NGOs including
all anarchists led by some big names
tried to stall the project. I don’t want
such troubles for my enemies. We had
a lot of adverse reports. My effigy was
burnt three times and my general
manager had to touch the feet of a
godman, to allow the project to
continue. There were commercial
interests
behind
the
religious
structures which we had to tackle.
General Managers had to speak to the
respective heads and convince them.
Some people have the habit of
creating problems by filing RTIs to
stall the project even at this point. I
would reveal one day when I retire on
what transpired. There are properties
where I got threatening calls. But I
have to give due credit to the lower
strata of society.
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Mr. NVS Reddy is known for his
financial
acumen,
engineering
innovation, open minded approach
and leadership qualities. He is an
expert in Rail Transportation &
Power sectors, Finance, Urban
Transportation, Urban Governance,
Project
Structuring,
Project
Management and PPPs. He has been
associated with implementation of
many important projects including
the mega Konkan Rail project on the
west coast of India. He has varied
interests and lectures on a variety of
topics in prestigious engineering and
management institutes/fora in India
and abroad.
Urban Transport Infrastructure | November 2018