The Hyderabad Metro Rail project has been selected as one of the top 100 strategic global infrastructure projects to be showcased at the forthcoming Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum being held in New York in Feb-March, 2013.
Two other Indian projects have also figured in this prestigious list as in the GIFT city (Gujarat International Financial Tech city) costing Rs. 72,600 crore (US$ 13.2 billion) and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project costing Rs. 60,000 crore (US$ 10.89 billion), apart from the Rs. 14,132 crore (US$ 2.6 billion) elevated metro project.
Expressing his happiness over the inclusion of the project in the list, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was confident that the elevated public transport system would transform Hyderabad into a world class city and set path-breaking trends in public private partnership mode of infrastructure development, a press release said.
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‘Strategic 100’ is a list of top 100 infrastructure projects selected on the basis of their potential to make significant difference to their cities/region/country in terms of overall performance and competitiveness.
The projects comprise of airports, ports, urban mass transit, railways, renewable energy, power generation and transmission, bridges and tunnels, high speed rail, natural gas pipelines, water and waste-water treatment, etc.
Other than the three Indian projects, eight of these infrastructure works chosen are from Brazil, six from United States, five each from Australia, Turkey, Canada and South Africa, four each from Saudi Arabia and UAE; three each from China, Egypt, Kuwait, Russia, etc.
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The list has been prepared by a reputed American agency after studying a large number of major infra projects in 66 countries on the basis of five criteria like their contribution to economic productivity, global competitiveness, generation of business, job creation potential and carbon efficiency/sustainability.
HMR director invited
The Washington-based selection agency, while congratulating the metro rail authorities, has also invited HMR Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy to address the Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum being held from February 27 to March 1, 2013 in New York.
The Forum consists of top international executives implementing major infrastructure projects; technology and construction experts; bankers etc., dealing with infra projects.
It aims at promoting economic development through infrastructure building; filling funding gaps; and doubling the investment in world’s infrastructure by 2020.