Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metro Rail project was partially ready to start serving citizens on Friday on the busy Mettuguda-Nagole Section of Corridor I.
A team of state ministers including the deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Mahmoud Ali, home minister N. Narasimha Reddy and the information technology minister K. Taraka Rama Rao along with other officials undertook the 8km trial trip from Mettuguda to Nagole and expressed their satisfaction with the system’s functioning.
L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad managing director V.N. Gadgil and Hyderabad Metro managing director N.V. S Reddy were also present during the test run.
“The Metro project will go a long way in developing Hyderabad into a global city”, said Taraka Rama Rao. “Today’s trial run was an amazing and incredible journey”, he said.
Taraka Rama Rao said that the goal of the Metro project is to provide a secure and fast mode of transport to people. He said the state government has so far spent Rs30 billion (Dh1.6 billion) and is trying to speed up its development.
Commercial taxes minister T. Srinivas Yadav, who was also part of the team, said that once fully operational the Hyderabad Metro will change the face of Hyderabad city. “It will considerably reduce the travel time, ease congestion on the roads and also reduce the levels of pollution in the city,” he said.
The Nagole-Mettuguda phase — part of the Nagole-Shliparamam Corridor I, which will pass through Secunderabd, Begumpet, and Jubilee Hills — was originally scheduled to open to the public in March this year, but it was put off after the L&T Metro officials judged that the plan wouldn’t be financially viable and decided to wait until the entire section, up to Secunderabd, was ready.
L&T Metro Ltd officials said that the work had reached an advanced stage on a section of Kukatpally-Dilsukhnagar Corridor II.
The Metro project spans three busy corridors of the city, and is being built at a cost of Rs140 billion.
