Darshita Jain, Pune
On Thursday, KT Rama Rao (KTR), minister of Telangana Municipal Administration, gave GMR Airport authorities instructions to hand over 48 acres of land in the airport area for the construction of a Metro Rail depot.
With Secretary Ms. A. Santi Kumari and other senior officials present, KTR held a review meeting on Airport Metro and other metro expansion projects and ordered the concerned departments. Ordering organisations to immediately turn over the identified government-owned land to Hyderabad Airport Metro Ltd.
NVS Reddy, managing director of Metro Rail, had earlier presented a thorough power point on the metro project. He asked the Chief Secretary to convene regular coordination meetings, encourage swift completion of the Airport Metro project, and pursue approval of the Rs 9,100 crore BHEL-Lakdikapul and Nagole-LB Nagar (36 km) project as a joint venture project of GoTS and GoI with senior officers in the Government of India.
The Minister also gave NVS Reddy instructions to begin surveys of all the new metro corridors that the Cabinet recently approved. And to prepare preliminary project reports and detailed project reports in the months to come.
In his broad explanation of the Chief Minister, Mr. K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s vision to transform Hyderabad into a global city with top-notch infrastructure, KTR emphasised the significance of public transport in lowering traffic and pollution. Making the city a globally competitive city to attract significant investments and talent.
According to him, the city’s current daily metro ridership of 5 lakh people can be doubled, and traffic congestion can be eased by adding more coaches, enhancing feeder services, and creating better footpaths. He suggested that Mr. Arvind Kumar, Special Chief Secretary for MA&UD, and Mr. K. Ramakrishna Rao, Special Chief Secretary for Finance, look into various funding options for the new metro projects.
Additionally, he has given the collectors of the districts of Hyderabad, Medchal, and Sangareddy instructions to locate government land parcels that are vacant and closer to the current and future metro stations so that the CM’s desired multi-level car parking complexes can be built there.
In a separate meeting with MIM MLA Mr. Akbaruddin Owaisi, KTR gave the Metro Rail MD instructions to speed up the process of acquiring land in the old city metro corridor and to begin construction there. KTR also asked the MD to plan for further extending the line from Falaknuma to the airport.
On December 9, 2022, Telangana’s Chief Minister laid the foundation for the Hyderabad Metro Phase 2 project, which includes the Airport Express Line. The estimated cost of the project, which will be carried out by Hyderabad Airport Metro Limited (HAML), is Rs. 6,250 crore. The Phase 2 project will include 4 elevated corridors, 1 new line, and 3 extensions of the existing lines built in the 67 km Phase 1 project, according to the most recent plan made public by Hyderabad Metro’s MD. Whether this phase will be developed using the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) or EPC method is still up in the air.