Hyderabad: Hyderabad Metro Project, the world’s largest elevated metro rail, will take a major leap towards completion on Wednesday when its third section from Ameerpet to Hitech City will be opened to the public.
State Governor ESL Narasimhan will inaugurate the 10 km-long route in the morning while the service will become available to the general public at 4pm linking other parts of the city to the highly congested and busy Hitech City, a hub of IT companies.
With this, the entire 27km-long Corridor will become operational. While the Nagole to Ameerpet section has been operational since November 2017, the remaining section will start functioning now. With this, people in the eastern suburbs will be able to ride the metro directly from Nagole to the Hitech City while commuters from LB Nagar and Miyapur will have to interchange at Ameerpet junction.
The 29km-long Corridor I from Miyapur to LB Nagar has been fully operational for the last few months.
However, the Corridor II from Jubilee Bus Stand in Secunderabad to Mahatma Gadhi Bus station in Hyderabad has been under construction and will likely be opened by the end of the year.
Of the total stretch of 72km on three corridors, metro trains will now be running on 56km on two corridors.
While the new section from Ameerpet to Hitech City will have 10 stations, three of them — Jubilee Hills Checkpost, Peddammagudi and Madhapur — will not be available to the public for sometime as some more work is need for them to be complete.
There will also be speed restrictions and the frequency of trains will be less than on other routes, as the reversal system was not yet ready at Madhapur.
NVS Reddy, managing director, Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd, said: “Metro at this section will be run because of the twin single line method of operation.”
This means that the trains will run on both the lines on both directions alternatively until the reversal system gets ready. This plus the narrow passageway Cyber Towers and flyover has necessitated the speed restriction, he added. The reversal system was being built beyond the Hitech City station where the trains can take a turn to run in the opposite direction.
The new section of the metro passes through the congested areas of Yusufguda, Jubilee Hills and Madhapur. One of the stations on this section, Taruni-Madhuranagar, will be developed as a women-managed station and it will also have a shopping area catering to the needs of women and children.
The inaugural ceremony will be a low-key affair as a model code of conduct was in force because of the ongoing Parliament elections and no political leader will attend. Only some state government officials and officials of Hyderabad Metro Ltd and L&T Metro Ltd will be present.