L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH), the private concessionaire which has built and operates the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) services, has reported a loss of ₹1,745.85 crore in the financial year of 2021-22, which is just a tad less than the previous year’s ₹1,766.75 crore.
Revenue from operations and other income for the financial year 2021-22 under review stood at ₹357.15 crore, including fare and non-fare revenue, as against ₹227.95 crore for the previous financial year. The total loss before tax was ₹ 1,746.21 crore.
Revenue from the metro rail system and others for the financial year ending on March 31, 2022 was ₹319.62 crore and this includes construction revenue of ₹118.23 crore and ₹155.76 crore, respectively, according to the annual report of the company.
The report stated that all segments of operations of the company were impacted due to the government-imposed restrictions on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. This had hit the ridership on the metro rail system and footfalls in the retail malls operated by the company were low forcing the the firm to extend support to retailers by adopting revenue sharing model of lease rentals in the place of fixed rentals.
The 12th annual general body meeting of L&TMRH held last month noted that apart from making sure that it provides safe and punctual travel alongside affordable last mile connectivity, contactless travel aimed at minimising commuters’ pain points and pandemic-related apprehensions, it would continue to target higher ridership.
“All efforts are being put in to make Hyderabad Metro the safest and cleanest transportation mode keeping in view current pandemic situation,” said the report. It was pointed out that the CMRS – Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety, had cleared the way for increasing the maximum speeds of the trains to be increased from 70 kmph to 80 kmph on all the three corridors to reduce the travel time in March with a software update.
The company also disclosed that it had successfully executed refinancing of the entire term loans from banks by raising ₹12,975 crore through Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) and Commercial Papers (CPs) to help reduce the interest rate on this borrowing by more than 2.5% per annum.
Gross fixed assets comprising of property, plant and equipment, investment property and intangible assets stood at ₹17,882.95 crore and the net fixed assets comprising of property, plant and equipment, investment property and intangible assets stood at ₹17,043.29 crore. Total additions to property and plant and equipment, investment property and intangible assets during the year amounted to ₹435.95 crore.
About 1.28 million sq.ft space of Transit oriented development(TOD) consisting of four malls and an office block at Punjagutta, Errum Manzil, Hitec City and Moosarambagh were completed while construction work for an office block of 0.5 million sq.ft at Raidurg is expected to be completed this year.
