The State government has targeted completion of 66.5 km of the proposed 72-km span of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project before the end of this year.
One corridor covering 30 km stretch had already been commissioned for commercial operations and the government is confident of completing the Jubilee Bus Station and Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station stretch before August this year, Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao said.
Mr. Rama Rao termed as “hypothetical” reports that the executing agency L&T was reluctant to take up works on the JBS-Falaknuma stretch of the metro rail project and said the government believed that the executing company would keep its commitment. He was responding to a query on the progress of the project during the Question Hour in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday.
MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi who raised the question wanted to know about the status of the project as also the number of religious structures that were coming in the proposed route of metro rail. The Minister said 25 structures, mostly religious buildings would be affected by the metro rail alignment, but the re-engineering and re-working of the alignment had ensured that only four structures would be affected.
Enough care had been taken during the construction so that no damage is done even to these four structures. The metro viaduct would be taken over these structures avoiding any damage to them, he said. Asked about the reports that L&T wanted the project cost to be enhanced, he said the issue was still under discussion stage and no finality had been reached.
“The discussion is still on,” he said. As part of the ₹ 14,132 crore project, acclaimed as the largest in public-private partnership mode, the government had so far paid ₹ 2,296 crore out of its share of ₹3,000 crore to the executing agency which had availed viability gap funding of 10 per cent while the Central government had released over ₹ 1,200 crore as its share.
He said the government had asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation to prepare a detailed project report for phase-II of the project and the DMRC had submitted a preliminary report. It was presently carrying out field surveys for preparation of the DPR for the second phase.
Mr. Akbaruddin Owaisi wanted steps to be taken to ensure connectivity from Falaknuma to airport in the subsequent phase of works. BJP’s G. Kishan Reddy alleged that the government was neglecting aspirations of the residents of Old City and hence, the inordinate delays in the execution of the project. He staged a walkout from the Assembly in protest against the government’s alleged indifference in expediting the project works in Old City.
