If all goes well, the Hyderabad Metro Rail work in the old city area may finally begin next week. This development comes after Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) officials and AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi inspected a 6 km-stretch between MGBS and Faluknama, on Saturday.
The Hyderabad metro rail officials, led by HMRL director NVS Reddy, conducted a detailed inspection of the stretch.
Akbaruddin Owaisi, who was also part of the inspections, urged HMRL officials to immediately start the work.
After the inspections, Reddy assured that the work for the proposed stretch would commence in “two to three days”.
The metro line from MGBS to Falaknuma will run via Dar-Ul-Shafa, Purani Hawali, Eitebar Chowk, Volta Hotel, Sultan Shahi, Shah Ali banda, Syed Ali Chabutra and Shamsheer Gunj.
Just a week earlier, a delegation of AIMIM legislators had met with Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration & Urban Development (MA&UD), Arvind Kumar, and had requested him to start the works of metro rail in Old City.
The proposed work is an extension of the phase one of the 15 km-long green line corridor of the Hyderabad metro.
Six metro stations - Salarjung museum, Charminar, Shalibanda, Shamshergunj, Jangammet and Falaknuma - are set to come up along this corridor.
The state government has plans to extend the metro service from LB Nagar to the airport via Faluknuma.
The decision to expedite the Hyderbad metro rail work comes at a time when the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is expected to call for early state elections before the end of the year.
Earlier in May, NVS Reddy, at a press conference, had said that the metro rail works in the old city area would commence only by 2019 and would take another three years to complete.
Reddy also pointed out that the project at this stretch has been delayed due to issues regarding land acquisition, as an array of properties, including several heritage buildings and religious monuments and structures, are located along the proposed route.
The difficulty due to land acquisition for the project also posed problems with regard to the width of the road. Officials were unsure if the road width should be kept at 100 feet or 80 feet.
A 100 feet-wide road would fairly help the smooth the flow of traffic, while an 80 feet-wide road could cause more traffic congestion and difficulty in transporting metro construction work materials.