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Did State government favour Maytas?

PROJECT IN DOUBT?: A model of the metro rail.

HYDERABAD: Did the Congress government walk that extra mile in the allotment of prime lands and projects to Satyam and Maytas Infra.? The pace and ease with which the group kept “winning” projects during the last three years gives rise to this question.

Officials now admit that besides the flagship Satyam, Maytas Infra enjoyed a sort of ‘most favoured company’ (MFC) status, bagging several contracts encompassing irrigation, transport, roads, drinking water and power projects at a speed not known earlier. It was almost like a green channel through which the company, either on its own or as part of a consortia, could get its projects sanctioned. The total cost of these projects is estimated at Rs. 30,000 crore, at the least, they contend.

There were several allegations when Maytas Infra bagged the metro rail project in September 2008: that the tenders were either tailor-made to suit the company leaving no chance for the competitors or works allotted on nomination basis.

Eyebrows were raised when the company secured metro rail project amidst stiff competition and none other than the ‘father of metro rail’ in the country, E. Sreedharan, asked questions over the sustainability of a model that was linked to allotment of prime government land for real estate business. Instead of seeing reason, the State took the unprecedented step of slapping a defamation suit against him.

At one point, if a project leaves the drawing board, it ought to go to Maytas, thanks to the chemistry of ex-chairman of Satyam B. Ramalinga Raju with the powers-that-be.

Some of the prestigious contracts won by Maytas Infra in consortium with other firms, include the Rs. 12,000-crore Hyderabad Metro Rail, the Rs. 1,590-crore deep water port at Machilipatnam, Rs. 800-crore Godavari drinking water scheme to Hyderabad, Rs. 121-crore road project at Gandikota in Kadapa and almost Rs. 10,000-crore worth of irrigation projects, all in a span of two to three years.

In short, listing Maytas for the deep water port at Machilipatnam, competitors alleged that the government had bestowed ‘extraordinary favour’.

Though no controversy emerged so far from the Irrigation Department, ‘because the system of sharing percentages is almost institutionalised’, as TDP president N. Chandrababu Naidu alleged, Maytas Infra figures in most of the joint ventures getting several major projects during the last two years including some packages of the hurriedly put together Rs. 28,000-crore Pranahita-Chevella project.

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