KTR asks GMR to earmark 48 acres for Airport Metro Rail project

HYDERABAD: The current metro ridership of 5 lakh per day could potentially be doubled and vehicular congestion decreased in the city by adding more coaches, upgrading feeder services, and developing better footpaths, said MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao on Thursday.

Municipal Administration Minister KT Rama Rao held a review meeting on the Airport Metro and other Metro extension projects in Metro Rail Bhavan, which was attended by Chief Secretary A Santi Kumari and other senior officials on Thursday.

KTR emphasised the importance of public transport in reducing congestion and pollution and making the city a globally competitive city to attract huge investments and talent in broadening his vision to make Hyderabad a global city with world class infrastructure facilities.

He said that by adding additional coaches, increasing feeder services, and constructing better pathways, the city's present metro ridership of 5 lakh per day could be doubled and vehicular congestion reduced.

Following a detailed power point presentation by Metro Rail MD NVS Reddy, the minister asked the concerned departments and organizations to hand over the identified government properties to Hyderabad Airport Metro Ltd immediately to start the construction activity.

He also asked the GMR Airport authorities to hand over 48 acres of land in the airport area for the construction of a Metro Rail depot. He requested CS to hold periodical coordination meetings and facilitate expeditious execution of the Airport Metro project and also pursue with the senior officers concerned in the Government of India for approval of the Rs 9,100 crore BHEL-Lakdikapul and Nagole-LB Nagar (36 km) project as a joint venture project of GoTS and GoI.

The Minister also asked the MD to start surveys of all the new metro corridors recently approved by the Cabinet and get preliminary and detailed project reports ready in the next few months for sending to the Government of India.

He advised Special Chief Secretary Finance K. Ramakrishna Rao and MA&UD Special Chief Secretary Arvind Kumar to explore different funding options for the new metro projects. He also instructed the collectors of Hyderabad, Medchal, and Sangareddy districts to identify vacant government land parcels nearer to the existing and proposed metro stations for developing multi-level car parking complexes as desired by Chief Minister KCR.

In a separate meeting held with Akbaruddin Owaisi, KTR asked the Metro Rail MD NVS Reddy to expedite the land acquisition process in the old city metro corridor and start construction there, as well as plan for further extension of the line to the airport from Falaknuma.