Issues And Challenges In Hyderabad Metro Rail Project

Background of Hyderabad Metro Rail project

Question:

Discuss about the Reasons Behind Failure of Hyderabad Metro Rail Project.

The report will discuss in detail about the Hyderabad project of metro rail. The project is constantly failing to meet the deadline. The government and L&T are thinking for an extension to the project. The extension in deadline is actually in addition with so many issues which are yet to be solved like Metro rail and associated alignment with Old City as well as escalation of the cost (Ramachandran, 2011). The government of the state has initiated consultation with Metro Rail association namely Hyderabad Metro Rail as well as Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on the fact that the extension of the deadline must be for a year or maximum two. The developer of the project has also asked for the government in term of extending of schedule and it is important to consider it properly. It further will be discussed in detail in metro rail work forces the meeting in sometime and CM is also contemplating on taking the final decision. In addition, the government should have no issue in providing an extension as far as it does not results in any kind of financial burden on them along with prolong concession period (Ramachandran, 2011).

The aim of research is to understand the issues and reasons behind the failure of the Metro Rail project in Hyderabad. From the look at the current status of the work in Hyderabad, it seems the work is at different stages of completion and the work is being done in different part of the town.  The work of construction for the Metro has come to highlight it is slowly becoming a nightmare for the people of the city because of infrastructure issues at various stages of the city (Rai, 2012).  There are number of arterial route in the city in the current time with so many diversions as well as bottlenecks creating havoc for the traffic of the city. There are so many times when there are traffic issues in the rush hours.

The official are also claiming that there are more than sixty seven percent of the current work was finished and the deadline has now set by the end of 2018.

1. When will the Hyderabad metro rail project start?
2. What are the main reasons behind failure of the project?
3. Will L&T able to complete by extended time?
4. Will the project complete at least in extended budget?
5. Can government assure people about their business?
6. Is the project failure due to government or company?
7. Do governments need to implement any rules for project completion?

The project initiated with first bidding process for it actually took place in the year 2008 and was rewarded to Maytas. But the present government by the state got completely cancelled the present deal after the company called as Mayatas Infra Ltd. which also led to failed consortium in order to raise right finances for the projects. In the year 2010, there must be fresh bid were termed and L&T got the project (Sharma et al, 2010).

Challenges and obstacles faced by the project

The agreement based on concession with the government then united with the state, for which it was touted to be one of the biggest project in metro worldwide in this private and public partnership which was signed in the 2010 however the work started in 2012. When the current project was started, the organization was claimed that it can be finished in three period of time. At the same time, the successive government of the state has operated into a number of roadblocks. As per the report published in the year 2013, the busy corridor that actually headed towards the city Hyderabad and the acquisition of land in the present Ameerpet stretch and in the current corridor which passes through the old city of Hyderabad that can also touch the busy junction of the market of a place called Sultan Bazar and have also created a lot of trouble (Sharma et al, 2010). The traders in the local area were completely against the project and in addition, there were some structure also in the way which was hurting religious sentiments of certain religious group like Iskon temple (Bon, 2015). The project of metro rail was also fighting constantly a legal battle with the oldest church in the Secunderabad.

In the year 2014, the present project was facing so many issues from the government o f Telangana with the people demanding the issue like realignment of the present metro structure covering two out of the three corridors in order to save the religious structure. The conflict further escalated that the company L&T faced a lot of threat in order to pull out the project. Therefore, the move also had an undertone which was political by nature since the TRS government had a conversation with the AIMIM during this time (Bon, 2015). In this time period, government official also claimed which should realign when there is escalation the project which cost a lot of money. With 2 years of conversation, the government of Telangana determined to go for the original or decided alignment. As per the number of reports, the main issues were that the government may to look for an environment cleaning in order to take up the work of Metro. In 2015, the traders at the local market Sultan Bazar in the city have protested and further claimed where the Metro construction that should be deprived the local people from hundreds of jobs.

Quantitative research methods for data collection and analysis

Right after the face-off which lasted for close to 3 months, both the parties with a deal with the project promised that a present stretch should be progressed when a hawker paradise with specific kind of arrangement for people that exist between the viaduct of Metro (Sridhar, 2012).

In the present time, number of reports also suggested that there are almost more than two hundred court cases that are still pending against the Metro Rail project of the city. At the same time, officials also claimed where work is gathered in pace with seventy one km which was elevated project of metro rail which claimed to be operational by 2018. In fact, there were seventeen stations have been finished on two areas when the work in progress with three stations which can be interchangeable along with 30 stations. The work is in its critical stage and in the part of the city which was denser that people thought that there is slowdown in the city. However, a big part of the work has already started specifically at higher planes and in number of developing stations with interconnects as well over-bridges (Sridhar, 2012). There are number of questions that are also raised towards the finishing line of the Nagole as well as Mettuguda and many other stretches which were certified sometime ago and are ready for usage. One of the biggest challenges for contention that exist between the government of the state and L&T are paying for the delay. The cost of the project is increasing with every passing day almost by Rs.4000 crore from the starting estimates and the company is looking at the government looking for the compensation in terms of monetary value when the state is not very keen on the present demand.

The ministry of the urban development is functioning on easier operations and with fast execution of the present Metro Projects. The metro projects are part of the plan for many developed cities in the country the expert of transport says it is not a viable point for small towns which are populated in sparse manner. There is a possibility that number of Tier 2 cities could increase the present public system of transport like business and local trains and many others.

There are number of delays as well as escalations as well where cost is common concern of many projects in Metro (Suzuki et al, 2015). The centre has been kept on other side over a huge amount of money for number of metro Projects in the budget of 2017-18 which was in fact fourteen percent above than last year since the work is moving at a slow speed. There are land issues as well like land acquisitions and related laws that have created some complications. There is no choice but to accept the delays which are caused because of resolution. Experts also claim that the opinion that constant transformation in the top level management at corporation related to Metro are also an important concern. The construction of Delhi metro was successfully finished since there were two people who have posted as MD between the time of 2002 and 2017. In fact the management of the metro in Hyderabad has seen constantly delaying for last 5 years. In addition, the bureaucrats also posted as MD that do not clear with the present network of metro (Suzuki et al, 2015).

The present seventy one km of elevated road in Hyderabad Metro also faced many obstacles which also consist of delays in safety of the railway clearance for almost eighteen km Nagole to Mettuguda part and with alignment of track issues in the old part of city. The metro construction was supposed to be ready by 2017 and the current deadline is extended by the end of 2018 for completing of all the current three segments (Sharma et al, 2014).

There are number of doubts and queries which remained unanswered all the time and however it is important to understand here that a better planning with detailed discussion about the project which can decrease the commuting issues in the city. The management of the traffic at the time of construction period has been a bad shape. Even the people on two wheelers struggle to commute in the city, so it is challenging to even imagine the issues of pedestrians. 

The report will conduct the Quantitative research which consists of the collection as well as analysis of data that can easily be quantifiable. In other words, data must be quantified which means it should be counted in mathematical language. In addition, quantitative research also provides as a means for the authors to be able to create statistics with the data can be collected. The basic idea for this kind of research is to get data that be properly inferred for the large number of people (Sharma et al, 2014). For instance, if the researches to understand the difference that exist between the neighboring states in term of behavior towards the government of state and design in quantitative research that will provide comparison along with statistics to show the basic difference between the states.

There are so many methods of quantitative research in the field of sociology and following is the detailed discussion of the methods: –

1. Surveys: this is considered as one of the most popular methods for the quantitative researches used for surveys so that data can be collected. Surveys can also be utilized in many distinct ways which also include asking people to finish the survey because of busy retail stores, sending surveys and conducting surveys at local agencies. Despite the fact that it can be distributed, the outcome is based on survey which is given to large number of individuals (Sharma et al, 2014).

One of the drawbacks by utilizing surveys in order to collect information is that all the people will finish it and send it back to people. At the same time, the advantages are that one can collect a lot of information in a short period of time. Following are some of the examples of surveys: –

1. Generating a ten question survey aiming on satisfying of the provided service by the agency.
2. Generating or developing a questionnaire that look for information associated to varied political preference.
3. Generation of short survey as a part of different session for the domestic social service providers.

1. Post or Pre designs: there are many kinds of quantitative research that consist of the usage of post and pre designs. The concept of these designs will be utilized when one want to look for information for the initiation of any kind of sociological intervention or interference. In this kind of design, a survey will be provided with a survey in the form of questionnaire for a group of people and also participate in something like a treatment based group or a function. In addition, people will have to participate in some form and the basic idea here is to properly compare the questionnaires to decide the level of intervention that has influenced the current situation (Sreenivas, 2011). For example, it is important to create a simple kind of survey which usually asks about the consumption of alcohol and routine functions. After that, people at the time of completion of the survey will be the part of the treatment program almost for twelve weeks. In the end, it also important to provide the same survey right before the treatment and also compare the level of improvement in the consumption of alcohol with routine operations.
2. Data which is pre-existing: there are times that it is advantageous to utilize pre-existing information which can also be referred as secondary data in order to inform in a query or research based question. All the pre-existing data also includes data from National Census Bureau and other similar organizations that can be from a study that has been finished where people may want to expand or also collect additional data. As per the popular studies quantitative research which utilizes the data pre-existing information. This data is often performed in the state as well as federal welfare of the child based program where the current database also saves many kinds of statistics (Sreenivas, 2011). Usage of all the pre-existing data is normally a rapid methods but the drawback is that one do not have any kind of control over how the information must be collected with right kind of questions. For instance, many sociologists also have some kind of interest in getting information of human behavior with so many childhood issues or by utilizing the pre-existing information that should be accessed by the social organizations like Autism Spectrum Disorders. The website of such organization usually gets the affiliation with NIH. NIH is actually funded from federal program by conducting the research is about every discussion which can be imagined. They also provide the information which is directly downloaded in the present statistics program in order to use and evaluate it properly (Sreenivas, 2011). 
3. Pilot studies: this is one of another method of quantitative research which also includes a study in a pilot form. Here, number of authors and researchers who are usually interested in testing and learning about different phenomenon. This is why; researchers are show interest in developing a new kind of interference and also study problems that have been completely studied before. In this case, one will have to use the study based on pilot sample. Most often, these surveys are utilized as per pilot studies in a manner to decide the impact of interference. Generally, pilot based studies aims on adding the depth as well as breadth of the topic which is yet to be explored in the right manner (Agarwal & Chauhan, 2011).

The report will discuss about different stages of the development in the program along with estimated budget and schedules. For this the report will use Gantt chart which is commonly utilized in the project management which is one of the commonly used and popular way expressing activities which can be displayed against time (Ahluwalia & Mohanty, 2014).  At the left of the chart is a list of functions and in addition with the top is right kind of time scale. Every activity is shown by the bar with the position and the length of the bar showing the start date along with the duration in addition with the end date as well. This will also allow you to see the glance in the proper manner:

1. What are the various functions?
2. When every activity will start and finishes?
3. Amount of every activity is actually scheduled with last activity
4. When activities are able to overlap with other function
5. The inception and the end date of the complete project

In the present time, Gantt charts are very important for the project since it helps in tracking the projects details and schedules. This is also very useful since it is able to show some added data about many function or stages of the project. For instance, how the task must be related to one another and how far every task and has further seen progress where resources are utilized for every task (Ahluwalia & Mohanty, 2014). The Gantt charts initially use to prepare in laborious manner and every time a project has transformed since it was important to change the chart and this restricted it usefulness with continuous change being a characteristics of most of the projects. In the present time, with technology advancement and advent of computer Gantt chart must be updates and printed in easier manner.

Reference

Agarwal, O., & Chauhan, I. (2011). Toward coordinated urban transport planning in India. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (2239), 112-116.

Ahluwalia, I., & Mohanty, P. K. (2014). Planning and markets for urban development in India. Urbanization in India: Challenges, opportunities and the way forward, 56-81.

Bon, B. (2015). A new megaproject model and a new funding model. Travelling concepts and local adaptations around the Delhi metro. Habitat International, 45, 223-230.

Rai, P. T. (2012). Townships for sustainable cities. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 37, 417-426.

Ramachandran, M. (2011). Metro rail projects in India: a study in project planning. Oxford University Press.

Sharma, N., Gangopadhyay, S., & Dhyani, R. (2010). Methodology for estimation of CO2 reduction from mass rapid transitsystem (MRTS) projects.

Sharma, N., Singh, A., Dhyani, R., & Gaur, S. (2014). Emission reduction from MRTS projects–a case study of Delhi metro. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 5(4), 721-728.

Sreenivas, A. (2011). Urban transport planning: Lessons from the proposed Pune metro rail. Economic and Political Weekly, 27-32.

Sridhar, V. (2012). Automated system design for metro train. International Journal of Computer Science Engineering (IJCSE).

Suzuki, H., Murakami, J., Hong, Y. H., & Tamayose, B. (2015). Financing transit-oriented development with land values: Adapting land value capture in developing countries. World Bank Publications.