Hyderabad will have to wait another year for Metro Rail, as officials fail to meet deadline

Hyderabad's Metro construction woes will continue, as it was announced on Saturday that the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) project will take at least another year to become fully operational.

The Telangana government has also decided to extend the present deadline, set for June 2017, by one or two years.

Addressing the media, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) chief NVS Reddy said, “All the three corridors, will be finished by June 2018. Following the construction, a few more months will be required for completing 'contractual formalities'. This is a must, before the three corridors can be made completely operational."

This comes two months after Reddy told reporters that eight kilometres between Nagole and Mettuguda and 12 kilometres between Miyapur and SR Nagar may commence commercial operations either on 'Ugadi' or June 2, Telangana state formation day.

However, it seems that only one stretch will be thrown open to the public this year.

At present, officials state that 70% of the 72 km elevated project has been completed.

Speaking about the delay, Reddy said, "There have been unavoidable delays. There were 369 court cases filed, of which we won 340 cases. For a project of this magnitude, a one-year delay is very little.Experts agree that Hyderabad Metro Rail is progressing at a very good pace. We will have to give an extension to L&T. It will be given for less than a two-year period."

As per the concession agreement signed with the then government of united Andhra Pradesh in 2010, the entire project should have been completed and operational by July 2017.

However, the date was later revised after issues of land acquisition.

Many arterial roads in the city presently have diversions and bottlenecks, with traffic coming to a complete standstill during rush hours.

Construction major Larsen & Toubro, which is developing the metro project, had earlier stated that it remained committed to the project and was making all efforts to complete it expeditiously.

The developer clarified that it is sticking to its deadline of making the project fully operational by December 2018.