Hyderabad Metro Rail has decided to join hands with Korean Samsung SDS for ticketing contract of the project. With this, it completes awarding all contracts worth Rs 11,000 crore.

“We have awarded contracts of Rs 11,000 crore which include rolling stock, signalling and others. The ticketing contract is expected to range between Rs 180 – 220 crore,” said VB Gadgil, chief executive and managing director, L&T Metro Rail.

The total cost of the project, which is hanging under the sword of escalation, now amounts to Rs 14,132 crore, while another Rs 2,000 crore was funded by the Andhra Pradesh government. L&T has also drawn around Rs 500 crore of the financial closure it had achieved.

“We are trying to get more funds from the urban transport ministry, under the central government, which could be availed under various schemes like JNNURM, apart from the viability gap funding component,” said N V S Reddy, managing director of Hyderabad Metro Rail.

Officials say impacting the cost of the projects are three factors like interest rates, rupee devaluation and inflation. “As much as possible we would want vendors to accept payments in rupee,” Gadgil said.

Meanwhile, the Indian subsidiary of Samsung SDS, known as Samsung Data Systems would carry out the automatic fare collection contract. The smart card based ticketing system allows users to integrate with other modes of transport as well.

Earlier, the rolling stock contract, was given to Korean Hyundai Rottem, pegged at Rs 1,800 crore. Their other contracts include signalling, telecommunications, automatic fare collection and lifts and escalators, cost of which would be around Rs 3,000 crore together.