Hyderabad metro to roll out

In order to shift the emphasis from personal transport to public transport, the Centre has cleared the metro rail projects for Hyderabad, Bangalore and Mumbai. The metro rail project in Hyderabad and Secunderabad, according to chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy would take off in about two to three months. It will be taken up under the public-private partnership model on a Build-Own-and-Transfer (BOT) basis.

With the Centre greenlighting Hyderabad’s MRTS project, the actual work on the brand new transport system is likely to begin by the end of the year. Before then, several procedures have to be gone through: consultants have to be finalised, technical and financial bids evaluated and a law passed to govern the operation and maintenance of the future transport system.

The selection of consultants is scheduled to be completed by April 10. The technical bids were opened on Thursday and the financial bids would be due for opening on April 10. Then the state has to pass the Metro Rail Bill drafted by the Centre which will govern the operation and maintenance of the MRTS.

The MRTS, as originally planned, was to have three corridors: Miyapur-Chaitanyapuri, Secunderabad-Falaknuma and Hi-Tec City-Tarnaka. But it has now been decided to extend these routes in view of the increase in congestion. The Miyapur-Chaitanyapuri route will now be extended to L B Nagar at one end of the corridor and to Patancheru on the other. Similarly, the Secunderabad-Falaknuma route will be extended to Jubilee Bus Station and Shamshabad. The Hi-Tec City-Tarnaka line will run further to Habsiguda.