Hyderabad, Feb 19 (IANS) The Hyderabad Metro Rail project will be awarded to a new developer in May this year and will be completed in five years, the Andhra Pradesh government said in the state assembly Friday.

The cost of the Hyderabad Metro Rail would be Rs.12,132 crore.

Minister for Urban Development Anam Ramnarayana Reddy told the house during question hour that the work for the elevated metro rail project would be awarded on the condition that the developer complete it in five years.

He said the project was earlier awarded to Maytas Infra, a sister concern of Satyam Computer Services, but the government scrapped the deal after Satyam's founder and chairman B. Ramalinga Raju admitted to massive fraud in the IT major last year.

The government called fresh global tenders. Last month, it announced receiving pre-qualification bids from eight companies/consortia.

They will participate in technical and financial bidding for the elevated metro rail project to be taken up in public private, partnership on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.

The companies would be shortlisted in technical bidding and financial bids would be invited April 9.

The minister had then said that the ground work on the project for three routes of the 71.16 km was expected to start by October.

The central and state governments could fund 40 percent of the project cost (a maximum of Rs.4,853 crore) as Viability Gap Funding (VGF). The centre has already sanctioned Rs. 2,363 crore as its share under the VGF.