Exercise for expansion of Metro Rail begins

Hyderabad : On the instructions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao that Metro Rail Phase II expansion exercise shall start immediately, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) preparatory work was entrusted to Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) two days ago and it’s experts have since arrived in Hyderabad. 

HMRL Managing Director NVS Reddy, along with these experts and senior engineers of HMRL, inspected different alternative potential corridors on Thursday and conducted a brain storming session in Metro Rail Bhavan on Friday. 

Explaining that financial viability of Metro Phase II is far more challenging than Phase I, he emphasized on the need for enhancement of revenues with innovative ideas and cost reduction through out of box solutions. After extensive inspection of the potential alternative corridors and the brain storming session, DMRC was advised by him to suggest Phase II routes on the basis of maximum travel demand, closing of the gaps in Phase I and integration with Metro Phase I routes and existing rail & bus systems and Airport connectivity. Among other things, availability of Government/open lands was also to be kept in mind while locating stations & depots for Phase II, the MD advised DMRC. 

As a part of preparation of DPR for Phase II, the following tasks were given to DMRC: Traffic & Transportation surveys; Preparation of alternative routes on Google/available standard maps; Ridership Enhancement study; Integration with Metro Phase I and existing rail, MMTS and bus systems; Planning of feeder bus services and Pedestrian facilities; Field surveys and preparation of topo sheets for alignments and assessment of land required for facilities like station area, depots, electrical installations, etc., among others. 

DMRC Director SD Sharma, HMRL Chief Engineers DVS Raju, Laxman and Pancham; Superintending Engineers Vishnuvardhan Reddy and  Vinod Kumar; GM(W) Rajeshwar and DCP Balakrishna and other senior engineers and officers of HMRL and DMRC participated in the inspection and brain storming session.