Narendra Modi inaugurates Hyderabad metro rail

Hyderabad: Prime minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the Hyderabad metro rail along with Telangana chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. The service, connecting Nagole station to the Miyapur station in the hi-tech city area — a stretch of 30 km, which is the longest in an Indian metro project — will open on Wednesday.

The inauguration was held at Miyapur metro station. Modi along with Rao and Telangana IT minister K. T. Rama Rao flagged off the metro rail and took a short ride on the train.

Modi was slated to attend the inaugural plenary of the eight Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad later on Tuesday, along with advisor to the US President Ivanka Trump.

The first phase of the metro will cover a total distance of around 72km across three corridors: Miyapur to LB Nagar, Jubilee Bus stand to Falaknuma and Nagole to Shilparamam. The remaining part of the project is expected to be completed by the end of 2018, K. T. Rama Rao told reporters after a trial run last week.

Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd was set up in 2007 during the tenure of the then chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy in the joint Andhra Pradesh state, following which a concession agreement was signed between the state government and Maytas Metro Ltd (MML) on 19 September, 2008.

However, the agreement was terminated after Maytas’ parent company Satyam Computers became embroiled in a major financial scam. The project was revived after L&T entered the scene and works were inaugurated on 25 November, 2012. While some hiccups were expected due to the Telangana statehood agitation and the state’s formation on 2 June, 2014, the works however continued. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government finally gave a date for inauguration after a string of delays.

The project is being built at a cost of over Rs14,132 crore. The starting fare for the metro, for a distance of up to 2km, has been fixed at Rs10 while the maximum fare, for more than 26km, is Rs60.