As Hyderabad Metro Rail braces for inauguration, chorus grows for work in Old City

Even as various parts of the city are all set to ride the Hyderabad Metro Rail which will be inaugurated later this week, people in the Old City area can't share the enthusiasm. 

An all-party delegation met at the Old City office of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Saturday, convened by party leader Rashid Shareef, who had contested against AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi in the 2014 Parliamentary election.

“We want to remind our party that the Old City needs the Hyderabad Metro Rail corridor passing through it. When our Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has done so much for the city and the State, then a metro line here should not be a big problem. If the Hyderabad parliamentarian Asaduddin Owaisi wants it to happen, he can enter into talks with management bodies of chillas, temples and other places of worship. It is not so difficult,” the Times of India quoted Rashid as saying.

Leaders from CPI, Congress, TDP and BJP were also present at the meeting, and backed Rashid's demands.

Meanwhile, in a separate development, the Metro Rail Joint Action Committee was also formed.

“Work across the city, except the Old City, has already started and will be completed soon. The Old City cannot be left out of the project without valid reasons. The residents here have been demanding this for long and now we will come out onto the streets,” Manik Prabhu, convenor of the Committee was quoted as saying.

Background

The construction of the Metro Rail in Hyderabad's Old City area has historically been contentious. 

In 2014, the project faced a hurdle from the Telangana government itself with the latter demanding the realignment of the metro on two of the three corridors, to save religious structures.

The friction escalated so much that L&T reportedly threatened to pull out of the project.

The move also had a political undertone as the TRS government held talks with the AIMIM during this period.

In July this year, the Telangana government extended the time for construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to complete the Hyderabad Metro Rail project till November 2018.

At the time, HMRL Managing Director NVS Reddy said that the concessionaire had been permitted to complete the entire project other than the 5 km stretch in the Old City and about 1 km stretch between Hitec city and Raidurg by November 2018. 

A 5.5 km stretch in Old City is part of the 15 km rail Corridor-II from JBS to Falaknuma, and reports suggested that the route will now end at Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station at Imliban in Afzal gunj, instead of passing through Salar Jung Museum, Charminar and Falaknuma.