Hyderabad: It was a red letter day for Hyderabad as Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the prestigious Metro Rail, the biggest public private partnership mode project in the world, on Tuesday.
After the formal inauguration of the service at Miyapur station at around 2-30pm, the Prime Minister took a ride up to Kuktpally station. He was accompanied by the Union Minister of State for Urban Development Hardeep Singh Puri, state Governor ESL Narasimhan, the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali and the IT and Municipal Administration Minister K Taraka Rama Rao.
Modi, who took a helicopter from the Begumpet airport to reach Miyapur first unveiled a beautiful pylon outside the station marking the launching of the 30-km long stretch between Miyapur and Nagole. The stretch has 24 stations.
The complete project of 72km on three city corridors was expected to be ready by the end of next year and was estimated to cost Rs180 billion (Dh10.26 billion).
The project which was initially estimated to cost Rs140 billion was executed by Indian engineering giant L & T over a period of five years. The Metro will be operated by L & T Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd., and will have a minimum fare of Rs10 and maximum fare of Rs60.
On the first floor of the station the prime minister watched a presentation on the growth of the transport system in Hyderabad since the days of Nizam till now and the evolution of the city Metro project over the last one decade. He also launched T-Savari App, which provides travel information and solutions to the citizens and also released a brochure.
Then he went to the platform on the second floor and boarded the maiden Metro train to Kukatpally, a 12-km long journey which took ten minutes.
Later the PM and his entourage travelled back to Miyapur to leave for the Hyderabad International Convention Centre to inaugurate the Global Entrepreneurship Summit.
Several Telangana state BJP leaders including the state President K Lakshman and the floor leader G Kishan Reddy also joined the Prime Minister in this journey.
The launching of the Metro has created a lot of excitement among the citizens as people have bought more than 10,000 smart cards within two days to ride the train. However, the security constraints forced the officials to keep the ordinary commuters away on the inaugural day.
NVS Reddy, managing director of Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd told the media that the Metro service will be thrown open to the public from tomorrow and the first train will run from 6am.
“Initially we will run 18 trains each having three coaches with total capacity of one thousand passengers”, he said. “The service will be operational from 6am to 10pm and the trains will run with a gap of 15 minutes”.
Minister for municipal administration K Taraka Rama Rao expressing his happiness, said, “The Metro will change the face of Hyderabad and will mark a turning point in the development of the city”.
Officials hope that the Metro will go a long way in easing the congestion on the roads in a city of nearly 8 million population where 8,000 new vehicles come on the road everyday.
Earlier on arrival at the Begumpet airport the Prime Minister was accorded a rousing welcome. Governor Narasimhan, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his cabinet colleagues and senior officials received the prime minister.
Telangana BJP had also organised a separate reception for the Prime Minister at the airport where the senior party leaders K Lakshman, G Kishan Reddy, party national general secretary Murlidhar Reddy and others greeted him.
Addressing a large gathering of the BJP workers the Prime Minister assured that his government at the will not discriminate Telangana or any other state on political lines.
“Telangana is a newly formed state and it has to go far ahead. I assure the people of Telangana that the BJP government in Delhi will not discriminate on political lines, let any party be in power in the state. Our party is committed to cooperative federalism”, Modi said.
“Our government is promoting competitive, cooperative federalism. For the development of the state, for their prosperity the Indian government has always been encouraging the policies of national interest. For the development of Telangana the government of India will not leave any stone unturned. In the journey of development the government of India would work shoulder to shoulder with the states as the destiny of Telangana and India would change only through development”, he said.
