Hyd Metro Rail in for expansion: KTR

Hyderabad: The prestigious Hyderabad Metro Rail project, which has been going on at a rapid pace connecting different parts of the city, will not be restricted to just 72-km stretch as planned. It will get expanded by another 250 km in the coming years, as part of the Telangana government's efforts to make Hyderabad a world class city.

This was announced by Minister for IT and Panchayat Raj K T Rama Rao, while speaking at the launch of the first batch of one-year PG course of Institute of Metro and Rail Technology here.

Allaying fears over Hyderabad Metro Rail project, KTR said his government was totally committed to the completion of not only the 72 km stretch of network, but also has plans to expand intra-city connectivity by another 250 km.

Seeking to put to rest the apprehensions over the Metro Rail project, he said 'Telangana government is committed to completing the project. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao had suggested a few alternatives.

The government will talk to the HMR Managing Director about not only the existing works on the 72-km stretches, but will also on expanding Metro services beyond 250 km as part of making Hyderabad a world class city.'

KTR said that all issues would be sorted out and the government would complete the trial run and the entire Metro Rail project ahead of schedule. The IT Minister said that Hyderabad had better infrastructure compared to other cities.

'We have good weather for 300 days in a year, a large pool of human resource, infrastructure thrice the size of Bengaluru and at a price of just one-third the existing cost of infrastructure in Bengaluru.

We cannot have haphazard growth. Our CM wants restructured and planned growth. We will execute a good master plan with the help of international consultants,' he said. The Chief Minister had been insisting on the development of clusters in an attempt to decongest the city, he said.

Hyderabad Metro Rail MD N V S Reddy said that the progress of Metro Rail was going on as per plans and added that till now 40 per cent of the works had been completed.

The 8-km stretch from Nagole to Mettuguda would be ready by March 21, 2015. He said that they were examining the alternatives after the Chief Minister had asked them to make changes to the existing alignment at two places in the city.

'Everything is happening as per the concessionaire agreement. After examining alternatives, we will give two to three proposals to the State government and then give it in writing to the L&T,' Reddy said.

The MD ruled out any differences with the government and rubbished reports that the Centre was taking over the Metro Rail project. Reddy said that government of Telangana was the owner of Metro Rail and the State had total authority over the project.

He said that the Centre provides viability gap funding of 10 per cent of the project (Rs 1,458 crore of Rs 14,132 crore). 'Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a project monitoring group (PMG), which calls for meeting of different projects to review its progress and it's a routine meeting,' Reddy said.