The Hyderabad Metro Rail took yet another step in promoting the Metro Rail, hitting the tracks next May, by launching its Mascot Niz on Thursday.
The Niz, which is apparently taken from the word Nizam, the erstwhile ruler of Hyderabad, was launched by the Telangana Chief Secretary, Rajeev Sharma. The character of the Niz belongs to the ancestry of Nizam but yet he is educated abroad and extremely progressive, and equally comfortable with both the Hyderabadi culture and the western lifestyle.
Niz can sprinkle the story of the City of Pearls with anecdotes of generosity and tehzeeb of the Hyderabadi people, the food and the dance forms. At the same time, he can tell how Hyderabad became the IT hub it is today and attracted the Microsofts and Googles of the world, according to Hyderabad Metro Rail Managing Director, N.V.S. Reddy.
Later speaking to the media, Mr. Rajeev Sharma said that the hiccups in the project are being sorted out with the constitution of a committee of various department heads who meet once in two weeks. He said there are several representations seeking alignment changes and their concerns have to be studied. He also said that land acquisition would be difficult in such circumstances.
To the query on the changes suggested by the Chief Minister, K. Chandra Sekhara Rao, the HMR MD Mr. Reddy said that a committee of experts is studying the issue and efforts are being made to come out with a solution within a month. Delays in some places are being compensated speeding up the work at other localities, he said. S K Joshi, Principal Secretary MA & UD and V.B Gadgil, Managing Director, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited were present.
