The all parties’ meeting to be called by Telangana State Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will take a final call on the alignment changes being proposed by the government at three sites of the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) project, said its managing director N.V.S. Reddy on Monday.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Reddy said that as per the preliminary rail experts opinion secured, there will be no change in the distance to be covered by the elevated metro viaduct whether it is taken in front of the Legislative Assembly or behind as is being planned. In fact, the distance to covered is likely to be reduced when the alignment change happens avoiding Sultan Bazar and onto Badechowdi. However, there is going to be 3.2 km extra distance to be covered if the demand of the public representatives is to be conceded with regard to changing the alignment from MGBS-Imlibun towards Falaknuma avoiding Darulshifa, he explained.
Mr. Reddy pointed out that the government was ready to bear any additional expenditure in the event of the alignment change as was assured by the Chief Minister. But, the independent engineer Louis Berger will take the final call when the concessionaire L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) comes up with its own financial and technical feasibility report.
With regard to the construction progress, the MD said with the recent High Court verdict “all hurdles” to the project have been overcome and thus far 43 km of foundations, 40 km of piers (1,517 pillars) and 30 km of viaduct out of the total 72 km across the three routes: Corridor one – L.B. Nagar to Miyapur; Corridor two JBS-Falaknuma and Corridor three Nagole-Raidurg.
Trial runs are to begin on the Miyapur-JNTU-S.R.Nagar stretch once the power supply plant is commissioned at the second depot in Miyapur. On ground works like construction of new disabled friendly sidewalks and the likes will soon begin on the Nagole-Mettuguda stretch where overhead stations making is at an advanced stage.
For now, parking and circulating areas at 20 odd stations of the 63 stations have been frozen while few more government lands have been identified for the purpose near other stations. A few private parties too have evinced interest in handing over sites in view of the “attractive compensation package” on the offer, he added.
Disabled awareness walk tomorrow
For the second year in succession, HMR will be organising a disabled awareness walk on the Necklace road on Wednesday to coincide with the World Disabled Day in association with the Disabled Rights Forum. The HMR MD explained that metro rail project will be most disabled friendly and barrier free on ground, station and inside the train for those with mobility, visual, hearing and speech & cognitive impairments.
Other than sidewalks improvement along the three corridors, lifts will be wide for wheelchair movement and have hand rails, heights of operating buttons in lifts & fare gates to provide easy access, information in Braille, tactile strip from street to the platform level for the visually impaired, reduced gap between platform and coach for wheelchair manoeuvrability, special toilets, designated spaces, announcements in three languages and so on.
With the latest Communication Based Train Control (CBTC), the system has the capacity to run about 180 trains daily every two seconds across the three corridors with distance being just 40 metres as against the railway norms of 3 km between each train, he added. Forum Coordinator Kolli Nageswara Rao called for support from the citizens towards the disabled.
