After waiting for more than six years, the much-awaited Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) was finally inaugurated on Tuesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao amidst much fanfare.
The PM flagged off the 30 km-long first phase of the metro rail project at Miyapur. The corridor between Miyapur and Nagole will be thrown open to the public on Wednesday, November 29.
After his arrival at the Begumpet airport on Tuesday, Modi addressed BJP party workers briefly before leaving for the launch of the HMR.
In the inaugural ride, the PM was accompanied by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Governor ESL Narasimhan, Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya and cabinet ministers including Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao.
The commercial operations of the metro will begin from November 29, with trains running from 6 am to 10 pm.
The project cost is estimated to be around Rs 18,800 crore, while its initial estimate was Rs 14,100 crore. The project cost escalated due to delays and route changes suggested by the Chief Minister.
The first phase of the project will ease the road traffic at Secunderabad, Begumpet and Ameerpet.
The sales of smart cards ‘Tsavari’ were open from November 26 at Metro stations in Nagole, Tarnaka, Prakash Nagar and SR Nagar.
Here’s the rate card for the metro.
History
The project began in 2012 with Larsen and Toubro (L&T) as its concessionaire after the Navbharat-Maytas (Satyam spelled backwards) consortium dropped off the project.
As part of the deal, L&T holds the concession for 35 years, extendable by an additional 25 years.
The project works started under the then Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh N Kiran Kumar Reddy.
Hyderabad Metro Rail is touted to be the biggest public-private-partnership project taken up in the country which covers 72 km.
It has three corridors -- corridor I from Miyapur- Nagole covering 29 km with 27 stations, corridor II covering JBS- Falaknuma over 15 km and with 15 stations and corridor III, from Nagole to Raidurg, covering 28 km with 24 stations.
HMR Managing Director NVS Reddy announced that the other two corridors will be operational from December 2018.
IANS inputs