On 10 July, MAUD Minister KT Rama Rao announced that the Telangana government had started measures to extend the metro into the Old City.
The state government has initiated measures to advance the metro project in Hyderabad's Old City. (Creative Commons)
Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) on Sunday, 16 July, said that it had initiated the preliminary steps for commencing metro rail operations in the Old City area.
As part of the first phase of the metro rail project, the remaining 5.5-km stretch from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) to Falaknuma in the Old City would undergo development.
To facilitate this, the authorities plan to issue land acquisition notices to approximately 1,000 properties within the next month, said the HMRL on Sunday in a statement.
On 10 July, Telangana’s Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao made an announcement that the government had initiated measures to take the metro rail project into the Old City.
He revealed that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had instructed the Municipal Administration Department to move forward with the project.
The 5.5-km balance Metro alignment in the Old City spans from MGBS to Falaknuma, passing through Darulshifa junction, Purani Haveli, Ettebar Chowk, Alijakotla, Mir Momin Daira, Haribowli, Shalibanda, Shamsheergunj, and Aliabad.
This section will feature five stations: Salarjung Museum, Charminar, Shalibanda, Shamsheergunj, and Falaknuma.
Within this stretch, there are a total of 103 religious and other sensitive structures, including 21 mosques, 12 temples, 12 Ashoorkhanas, 33 dargahs, 7 graveyards, and 6 chillas.
Efforts are underway to ensure the preservation of all but four of these religious and sensitive structures, said the HMRL.
Engineering refinement is currently being carried out to protect them from any adverse impacts during the construction process.
Currently, the metro rail network covers a distance of 69 km, with three corridors: Miyapur to LB Nagar, Jubilee Bus Stand to MGBS, and Nagole to Raidurgam.
The first metro line became operational from Miyapur in 2017. However, the Old City area has not yet witnessed the presence of the metro.
The fate of the 5.5-km metro rail project from Mahatma Gandhi Bus Stand (MGBS) to Falaknuma, which was part of the original plan for the Green Line, has been pending for years.
This project was designed to include prominent locations such as the Salar Jung Museum, Charminar, and Shamsheer Gunj, at the heart of the Old City. Unfortunately, it remains halted at MGBS.
A few months ago, suspended BJP legislator T Raja Singh staged a protest demanding that the government construct the metro line from MGBS to Falaknuma, covering the Old City.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), the largest party with legislators in the Old City, proposed an alternative route alongside the Musi river, passing by the high court, the city college, Hussaini Alam, Kalapather, and Bahadurpura.
However, this route would have increased the distance by another 3 km.
When the Telangana government announced the airport metro project, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi accused the government of discriminating against the people of the Old City by not extending the metro to their area.
The Telangana government has announced various metro projects on different occasions.
On 22 June, KCR promised to extend the Hyderabad metro rail up to Patancheru in the Sangareddy district if his party was voted to power for the third consecutive term in the Assembly elections scheduled for December this year.
On 19 June, he announced the further extension of the Hyderabad Metro Rail network to Kandukur in the Maheshwaram constituency, stating that it would be expanded to more areas in the state capital region.
In a meeting on 24 June with Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri, KTR presented a comprehensive list of requests.
At the top of the list was the approval and external funding for Phase II (B) of the Hyderabad metro’s corridor from BHEL to Lakdikapul (26 km), as well as the extension of Corridor 3 of Phase I from LB Nagar to Nagole (5 km).
Simultaneously, work on the 31-km Airport Express Corridor from Raidurgam to Narsingi Junction, which houses numerous IT companies, has been expedited.
The Airport Express Metro Corridor will commence from the Raidurgam terminal at Mindspace Junction, pass through Biodiversity Junction and Khajaguda Road, and connect to Nanakramguda Junction on the Outer Ring Road (ORR).
Authorities at the Hyderabad Airport Metro Limited are preparing bid documents to float tenders for engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) mode. Officials have mentioned that the nodal agency has been diligently working on the bid documents and a tender will be released soon.
As for the Old City metro project, despite the commencement of road widening work on the structures four years ago, the actual construction is yet to begin.
Officials have indicated that unless the entire five-km road widening is undertaken at once, numerous bottlenecks will arise along the stretch. This would necessitate the closure of businesses for wholesalers and retailers until the road widening is completed.
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