Commuters to suffer as SRDP faces fund crisis

GHMC plans to collect `2,000 cr in next three months

The state government’s flagship Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) to ease traffic snarls in the state capital has once again run short of funds.

Though the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation had earlier raised `100 crore through municipal bonds, the amount was sufficient only to clear the pending bills.

Citing lukewarm response from financial institutions to its proposal to raise another round of municipal bonds, GHMC is now contemplating a `2,000-crore Rupee Term Loan (RTL).

However, the process for availing RTL will take at least three months and till then commuters will have to continue suffering traffic jams.

Work on SRDP has already been put on hold temporarily till the corporation is able to clear pending bills worth `30 crore, highly placed sources disclosed.

The SRDP is a self-financed project that relies on borrowings from external sources. A total of `1,000 crore was to be raised through sale of bonds based on GHMC’s creditworthiness. However, the civic body has so far been

able to raise `495 crore in two tranches, `200 crore at 8.9 per cent interest rate in 2018 and

`195 crore this year at 9.38 per cent.

Though the corporation hoped to garner another `200 crore through municipal bonds, it could only mop up just `100 crore. Of the `100 crore raised, a senior official said, the corporation paid

`40 crore for land acquisition and the rest to clear pending bills.

It had previously paid `56 crore for acquiring land from the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority. The municipal body has to still clear `500 crore worth land acquisition bills to get the SRDP construction back on track.

Further, GHMC requires

`1,000 crore during next financial year to expedite SRDP and rescue commuters from traffic snarls. Moreover, the high interest rate being paid for the amount raised

through municipal bonds has been bleeding the GHMC.

Under this backdrop, an official disclosed that GHMC has now decided to opt for `2,000-crore RTL.

The RTL can be availed with a counter guarantee from the state government and the corporation has to take permission for the same from the government.

The civic body has already written to the government in this regard and the entire process will take two months’ time.

Thereafter, it will take another month for GHMC to receive the RTL.

The rate of interest the corporation will have to pay for RTL will vary from 9 per cent to 9.5 per cent, the official added.