Hyderabad: In a recent metro rail project review meeting, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao instructed the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) to start work on the six km Metro stretch in the Old City.
Rao directed HMRL to explore the possibility of state government taking it up on its own with external funds, if project concessionaire L&T does not show interest due to land acquisition and viability issues.
The Old City route falls under Corridor II of the Hyderabad Metro Rail project that stretches from Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma. The alignment was opposed in 2013 by MIM which suggested changes in route alignment due to about 1,100 properties are likely to be affected in the route.
The new alignment route was from the Musi river, high court, City College, Hussaini Alam, Kalapathar and Bahadurpura. However, the project developer, L&T stated that the new alignment was not feasible financially and would increase the distance by two kilometres apart from the environmental issues to crop up since the alternative route passes along the Musi.
The six-km stretch in the Old City was left out of the 72 km Metro Rail project.
