Congress government’s free bus rides for women impact sees change in ridership mix.
L&T received orders worth Rs 3,02,812 crore at the group level during the year ended March 31, 2024, registering a growth of 31 per cent.
L&T president, whole-time director & CFO, R Shankar Raman told BT TV that the firm will look at selling off Hyderabad Metro post 2026 as part of their non-core business divestment plans. “Hyderabad Metro is a 65-year concession to run the system. We currently have 4 lakh 80,000-odd people using it per day. We need to lighten the dead burden of this project because of the current ridership,” Raman told BT TV.
Raman said the firm has successfully negotiated a 3,000 crore soft loan with the state to be repaid over time without any interest. The firm is also looking at monetising some of the real estate attached to the Metro.
“My own assessment is that when we sit down for FY26 FY31 plan, this could be an asset to be monetized in that period because the asset would then be of interest to investors particularly the Pension funds and Global funds given the 65-year concession”.
To a question on how Congress government’s free bus rides has impacted ridership, Raman said it has made it less interesting.
“It has taken away the women from the compartments and since the women are occupying the buses and the number of buses has not increased, the men from the buses are moving to the railway wagons…There a gender distribution that is happening in the transportation system. Buses are being used by women who pay nothing and Metro is used by men who pay Rs 35 on an average per ticket.”
Raman termed it as not sustainable. “Some of these sops are done on the back of political promises, which is not going to help the state finances because what is the point in making the state’s transport corporation go bankrupt…there’s no fun in doing that,” Raman said, adding that while private capital is needed to put a modern, zero-polluting transport system, money is being spent on making people use polluting buses.
L&T reported a 10.2 per cent jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 4,396.12 crore in the March quarter on the back of higher income.
The Board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 28 per equity share, for the approval of shareholders. The consolidated income of the company rose to Rs 68,120.42 crore in the latest fourth quarter from Rs 59,076.06 crore recorded a year ago, L&T said in a stock exchange filing.
