Over one lakh people took to the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) on Wednesday, after the project was thrown open to the public and commercial operations began.
Taking to Twitter, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao said, "Delighted that Hyderabadis have welcomed Hyderabad Metro In a big way. More than 1 lakh people took the train on day 1."
He later tweeted, stating that the figure could be more than two lakh people.
The first day of the HMR's launch saw long queues and packed trains, as several people had stepped in just for the experience. Several residents of the city, young and old alike, were seen taking selfies and enjoying the ride.
The stations were packed since the first ride at 6am, and continued to be crowded till late in the evening.
HMR Managing Director NVS Reddy also travelled around the stations, taking feedback from the public on Tuesday, and overseeing all operations.
According to reports, L&T Hyderabad Metro Rail sold 10,000 smart cards and 45,000 tokens till afternoon on the first day of operations itself.
Other reports add that seven trains covered the 13-km stretch from Miyapur to Ameerpet, with a frequency of 8 minutes, while there were another seven trains between the 17-km stretch from Ameerpet to Nagole.
“We are yet to determine how many among the nearly 1 lakh passengers will be regular commuters who will continue to use the rail. Most people who boarded the metro today took to it to satiate their curiosity,” MP Naidu, a senior official from the engineering division told The Hindu.
Earlier this week, Hyderabad joined the league of Indian cities to get its own metro, with the inauguration of the first phase in this historical city by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who also took a ride from Miyapur to Kukatpally stations.
The 30 km-long first phase from Nagole to Miyapur has 24 stations covering several busy clusters and city landmarks, including the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Osmania University, Secunderabad Railway Station and major commercial hubs like Begumpet and Ameerpet.
After the flagging off the Prime Minister also took a ride on the Metro along with Telangana Chief MInister K Chandrasekar Rao, Governor ESL Narasimhan and other senior officials
This largest metro project in the world in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode was conceived way back in 2007, and was actually grounded in 2010. However, the foundation stone of the project was laid in December 2012.
The project, which was once on the brink of collapse, saw many ups and downs since L&T won the bid in 2010 to build the 71.2-km elevated metro on three corridors.
It achieved financial closure for Rs 12,674 crore while Government of India was to fund Rs 1,458 crore under Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
IANS Inputs