GMR Airport has been directed to hand over 48 acres of land for taking up construction of depot for the proposed 31-km ₹6,250 crore Hyderabad Airport Metro Rail project.
Other sites coming in the way of alignment of the fast metro from Mindspace Junction to Shamshabad, belonging to various government departments and organisations, too have been asked to hand over the identified land for taking up the work by Minister for IT, Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao on Thursday.
The Minister also wanted land acquisition for the remaining 5.5 km of the Old City Metro from MGBS, Imlibun to Falaknuma, proposed to be taken up at a cost of ₹1,800 crore, to be expedited and to commence construction work. The metro rail authorities have also been asked to plan for further extension of the line from Falaknuma till the airport.
At a meeting held at Metro Rail Bhavan attended by Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari, IT & Industries Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Municipal Administation Secretary Arvind Kumar, Finance Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, Environment, Science & Technology Secretary Rajat Kumar and others, the HAML Managing Director N.V.S. Reddy made a presentation on the proposed plan of action for taking up construction on these two routes and the obstacles.
Mr. Rama Rao wanted the MD to start surveys of all the new metro corridors recently approved by the Cabinet and get Preliminary Project Reports/ Detailed Project Reports ready in the next few months for sending them to the Central government for funding and also explore different funding options.
Senior officials have also been urged to pursue the ₹9,100-crore BHEL-Lakdikapul and Nagole-LB Nagar (36 km) project as a joint venture project with 50% cost sharing. Collectors of Hyderabad, Medchal and Sangareddy districts are to identify vacant government land parcels nearer to the existing and proposed metro stations for developing multi-level car parking complexes
With regard to the existing metro rail network operating across 69 km, the Minister called for introducing more coaches, improving feeder services, and developing better footpaths. These steps could help in doubling current metro ridership of five lakh per day and help reduce vehicular congestion, said an official release.
