No metro rail for Old City

Corridor 2 to halt at MGBS under PPP project

Metro Rail’s Corridor Two, which was originally conceived from Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma for 15 km, will now come to a halt at MGBS, Imlibun.

The Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) won’t chug into Old City under the present ongoing public-private-partnership project, notwithstanding protests demanding the service in that part of the city.

Although metro was supposed to be built across a 72-km stretch covering three dense corridors, Corridor 2 will halt at Mahatma Gandhi Bus Terminus (Imlibun) starting from Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) as had been feared.

There is no chance of the elevated metro viaduct passing through the Old City to reach Falaknuma from MGBS, a distance of a little over 6 km, even if the powers, which had demanded an alignment change, are now said to be amenable to taking it to the originally conceived route of Darulshifa, Alizakotla, Haribowli, etc.

Reason for the change of heart, senior Government officials observe, could also be the successful running of commercial operations between Nagole-Ameerpet-Miyapur (30 km) covering parts of Corridor 1 — Miyapur to L.B. Nagar and Corridor 3 — Nagole to Hi-Tec City/Raidurg, which began on November 29.

By the middle or end of 2018, there is every likelihood of the rest of Corridor 1 — from Ameerpet to L.B. Nagar — being thrown open to commercial operations, completing the entire ‘Red Line’. Similarly, Corridor 3, too, would be ready from Ameerpet to Hi-Tec City, although extension of the ‘Blue Line’ up to Raidurg is another two years away.

Top Government officials, pleading anonymity, stated that the project would be declared “completed” once the metro line is built up to Hi-Tec City and opened to the public without waiting for the MGBS-Falaknuma link because L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) has been given extension up to November 2018 to do the work.

“L&TMRH has already raised a demand for ₹4,500 crore compensation for delays in providing right of way. There is no way that the firm will take up work in Old City unless the Government provides funding,” say senior officials.

It is now being estimated that ₹1,200 crore more would be required for completing the metro line from MGBS to Falaknuma, taking into consideration the need for property acquisition (1000-odd, including 35 religious structures), shift of utilities, increased prices, etc. Save for preliminary surveys, nothing was done because of opposition from the Majlis Party over the years. “On-ground scenario has changed with a lot many illegal constructions of extra floors, including at religious structures, and laying of pipelines. This is bound to push up costs further. L&TMRH or any other infrastructure firm would do the work only under the EPC - engineering, procurement and construction mode, and certainly not under the present PPP mode”, affirm senior officials.