Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) Limited Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy said that the project has been going from strength to strength against all the odds after overcoming teething problems.
Delivering the opening remarks at the third Development Dialogue organized by the Kakatiya Sandbox, here on Saturday, Mr. Reddy said that the project had overcome many difficulties since like failing the first bidding. “The second round of bidding was successful with the arrival of L and T into the scene. The project, undertaken with an estimated cost of ₹12,000 crore, initially attracted public wrath and people used to agitate before my office every day,” he remembered.
HMR is the first and largest elevated mass transport project, he said, and it was a pioneer for the public-private partnership [PPP] model. Sharing his experiences with the delegates who included entrepreneurs, amateur investors, philanthropists, academics and merchant bankers from all over the country and countries like the U.S.A. and the U.K., he said that for every tree that was felled for the projects construction, more than five were planted. Removal of religious structures were delicately and dexterously tackled, he said.
Mr. Reddy praised Kakatiya Sandbox for motivating students and youth to transform the society. It’s not-for-profit initiatives have started yielding visible results, he added.
Welcoming the panelists for a dialogue on “Collaborating for Big Bets-Perspectives on the Theme from Experiences”, founding patron of Kakatiya Sandbox Raju Reddy said, “We are trying to build local capacities. Unless we have local leadership, we cannot scale up enterprises. Creating local leadership is an important concept of the sandbox model.”
Deshpande Foundation’s founder Gurudas Desh Deshpande said that the private sector was transforming and that thousands of youth were coming forward with new and innovative ideas. Such dialogues were meant to debate problems of different sections of people and come up with solutions, he said.
Phanindra Sama, co-founder of Kakatiya Sandbox and Government of Telangana’s Chief Innovation Officer, said that governments were open-minded and proactive. They were inviting ideas and suggestions from public for the problems faced by society, he said.
The delegates included Rahul Mehta from Mehta Foundation, Krishna Reddy from Care Hospitals, Padmanabh of Nice Foundation, TSHEC vice-chairman V. Venkataramana and Naveen Jaha.
