Hyd Metro Rail chugs into IT hub

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad Metro Rail on Wednesday threw open a key 10 km stretch connecting Hitec City, the information technology hub.The much-awaited Metro service on the Ameerpet-Hitec City route was inaugurated by Governor E S L Narasimhan at Ameerpet Interchange Station in a low-key affair in view of the model code of conduct in place for the general elections. The train operations will start at 4 pm on Wednesday.

The commencement of operations on this route is expected to cater to thousands of techies who travel to the IT cluster. Officials expect that 50,000 to 1 lakh people will utilise the service on this route every day.Officials said of the eight stations on this route, three will not be opened for the public at this stage to maintain speed and frequency.

For now, the trains will stop at Madhura Nagar, Yousufguda, Jubliee Hills Road No.5, Durgam Cheruvu and Hitec City. Initially, due to operational issues, the frequency of trains on this route will be 9-12 minutes as against six minutes in other Metro corridors.

With this, the Hyderabad Metro has become operational on 56 km of its planned 72-km elevated length. The inauguration of the latest stretch completes the 27 km Nagole-Hitec City corridor, one of three in the project. Hyderabad Metro Rail MD N V S Reddy said passengers on this corridor can travel from one end to the other without changing trains. However, those travelling on Miyapur-LB Nagar corridor will have to change at Ameerpet station, located in the heart of the city.

The 16-km Ameerpet-LB Nagar line was inaugurated last September, while the 30-km stretch between Uppal and Miyapur has been in operation since November 2017. Billed as the largest Metro project in the world in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model, the Rs 14,132 crore project is being built by infrastructure giant L&T. The Telangana government is spending Rs.3,000 crore on land acquisition for the project while the central government has chipped in with Rs.1,450 crore as Viability Gap Funding (VGF).