New metro line KCR's ploy to divert people's attention: G Kishan Reddy

Hyderabad: Reacting on the news that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao will lay the foundation stone for the metro line, the Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and Development of North Eastern Region,(DoNER), G Kishan Reddy said that the step is taken to divert peoples' attention from failure to complete the existing Metro rail project and contributing State share to Hyderabad MMTS.

In a statement on Thursday, Kishan Reddy said the reported laying foundation stone on December 9 meant the Airport metro is set to connect Gachibowli to Shamshabad Airport.

Lashing out at CM KCR, he said "For the opportunist that he is, it is not at all surprising all that the Farmhouse CM's dishonesty, obstructionism, and crass opportunism of the past led him to State that the Hyderabad Metro was an excuse for land-grabbing and even promised bloodshed while addressing a public meeting in Sultan Bazaar in the past." However, the U-Turn of CM KCR from promising bloodshed while Hyderabad Metro was being constructed to now laying the foundation stone for a new line is not surprising at all as he is compelled to hide his own failures.

The Union Minister said that Hyderabad Metro Rail is one of the world's largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects in the Metro rail sector and is being supported by the Centre. The Centre is providing approximately Rs. 1,500 crores as Viability Gap Funding (VGF) based financial support to Hyderabad Metro. It has already provided 85 percent of VGF support to Hyderabad Metro Rail as a part of Phase-I of the project and the balance is to be paid out soon.

He pointed out, as per the agreement between the Government of India and the State Government of Telangana, the Green Line (Corridor Two) of Hyderabad Metro, as a part of Stage-4 of the Phase-1, was planned from Jubilee Bus Station in Secunderabad to Falaknuma, in the Old City of Hyderabad via Charminar. However, the Green Line (Corridor Two) has been stopped at Mahatma Gandhi Bus station, Afzal Ganj. As a result, the residents of the West side of the Old City are suffering.