HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad Metro Rail project will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and will start to chug along from November 28. The first phase will cover the 13 km stretch between Miyapur and Ameerpet (Corridor-I) and 17km route between Ameerpet and Nagole (Corridor-III).
The project was delayed in the erstwhile state due to delays in permissions, like acquisition of critical properties, presence of religious and sensitive structures on the way and denial of Right of Way permission.
Acquisition of open space in front of Allauddin building, demolition of Jabbar building in Begumpet (which was pending for almost 20 years), acquisition of one acre from Sarathi Studios at Ameerpet, open land at lSKON Temple and SPG Church, Secunderabad, old Gandhi Hospital premises helped cross major hurdles for project.
Similarly, Right of Way through one-and-a-half km of Defence, Cantonment areas (pending for about four years) was sorted out and permission obtained from the Union Defence Minister with intervention of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in June 2014.Government is also developing multi-level parking complexes in PPP mode at Nampally, Gopalapuram, Old Gandhi Hospital (Secunderabad), Koti, Uppal and Tarnaka. The Secunderabad Railway Station would be connected to two metro stations and eight bus stands at the Old Gandhi Hospital premises to develop an inter-modal transportation hub with world class facilities.
Demand for RTC buses to come down?
TSRTC officials will take two-months time to observe if demand for the RTC buses will come down in the city to decide if frequency and number of buses have to be cut down or if they will remain unchanged. In Hyderabad, corporation buses alone cater to 40 pc of transport needs.“As of now, the services will not be cut down. Though, earlier, we thought of cutting down the services, we have decided to observe seat occupancy ratio for two-months and then take a decision,” said A Purushotam Naik, TSRTC’s executive director of Greater Hyderabad Zone