With just two weeks for the scheduled inaugural run of the Hyderabad Metro Rail, the Prime Minister's Office is yet to confirm if Narendra Modi would flag off the project, Minister for Urban Development KT Rama Rao told the state Legislative Assembly on Monday.

Replying to queries, KTR said that the 30-km stretch of the Metro Rail would be ready before the Global Entrepreneurship Summit being hosted in the city from November 28 to 30.

"We are yet to receive confirmation from the Prime Minister's Office but it is expected any moment," the Minister said.  

The Minister claimed that this would also be the first metro project in the country where 30-km stretch will be inaugurated in the first phase. He said no metro in the country began its operations with more than 11 km.

KTR also said a delegation of state government officials had recently visited Japan for the second phase of the Hyderabad Metro. 

He also lashed out at Opposition parties in the state, who have been criticising the TRS government for delaying the project.

“Opposition parties are criticising the government for delaying the Metro Rail launch. They should realise that it was done to provide an end-to-end solution to passengers. People may not have preferred to travel by Metro Rail without end-to-end connectivity from Nagole to Miyapur, and would have dubbed Metro Rail a failure. We could have launched Metro if we had the intention to gain publicity like governments in other states but it would not serve the actual purpose of Metro Rail," the minister was quoted as saying.

Billed as the world's biggest metro rail project in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, it was taken up in 2012 at a cost of Rs 14,132 crore.

The original construction period for the 71.16 km elevated metro ended in July this year but the project could not be completed due to various reasons and the developer was granted 17-month extension.

 

IANS inputs