It’s Official: KCR gives nod to 5.5-km long Old City Hyderabad Metro Rail

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Monday evening instructed the municipal administration department to start plans for the metro rail project in Old City in Hyderabad. Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development KT Rama Rao tweeted, “CM KCR also spoke to the chairman of L&T which is the agency executing the metro rail project to expeditiously take up the project and promised all needed support.”

This announcement on Twitter has elated netizens who welcomed the much-awaited discussion.

A meeting for UCC and Old City

Asaduddin Owaisi, member of Parliament and president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, along with senior members of the All-India Personal Law Board discussed Uniform Civil Code with CM KCR. After the discussion on UCC, pending development works of Old City were taken up. Asaduddin Owaisi urged that the metro rail project must be taken up in Old City since the people there want the metro rail connection to the rest of the city. With Hyderabad developed far and wide, metro rail is one of the lifelines to travel seamlessly from one end to another.

Old City metro rail project

The metro rail is laid till the MGBS bus stand. The Old City will be connected from Imlibun to Falaknuma covering 5.5 km under corridor-II. The Telangana state government has announced Rs 500 crore for the completion of the project. From the Imlibun bus stand, the metro rail will stretch from the Musi River. An estimated cost of more than Rs 100 crores would be spent on road expansion and property acquisition.

Old City route

The proposed metro rail will start from the MGBS bus stand and go along Mir Alam Mandi up to Shalibanda X roads till Falaknuma. The metro stations are proposed at Charminar, Shalibanda, Shamsheergunj, Jangammet and Falaknuma.

Metro rail project in Hyderabad

The metro rail project in Hyderabad started in November 2017. The Old City metro rail was a part of the original project but was delayed due to opposition from the people. After the three corridors - Red Line from LB Nagar to Miyapur, Blue Line from Nagole to Raidurg and Green Line from Jubilee Bus Stand to MGBS – became operational people realised how important it was to be connected.

In the last two years, there have been several reminders from people and their representatives that Old City must be connected. The current Hyderabad Metro Rail is now 69.2 km in total length and only 5.5 km was left to connect to the Old City.

With this promise, there is hope that the state government will complete the pending works soon.