India News | Preparatory Works Begins for Old City Metro Rail in Hyderabad: Official

Hyderabad, Jul 16 (PTI) The Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) has started the preparatory works for undertaking metro rail works in the Old City here as instructed by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, a top official said on Sunday.

The 5.5 km (stretch) metro alignment in Old City is from MGBS to Falaknuma via Darulshifa junction - Purani Haveli - Ettebar Chowk - Alijakotla - Mir Momin Daira - Haribowli - Shalibanda - Shamsheergunj and Aliabad, HMRL Managing Director N V S Reddy said in a release.

Also Read | Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh Sought Sexual Favours for Bearing Medical Expenses, Alleges Female Wrestler.

Preparation of individual sketches of the 1,000 odd affected properties has started and land acquisition notices will be issued in about a month, he said.

There will be five stations --Salarjung Museum, Charminar, Shalibanda, Shamsheergunj and Falaknuma on this stretch. Though the metro station locations are about 500 meters away from Salarjung Museum and Charminar, these two stations are being named after them in view of their importance and pride of place in the city, Reddy said.

Also Read | Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP Leader Basavaraj Bommai Hints at Alliance Talks With JDS.

There are 103 religious and other sensitive structures in this stretch. Through engineering solutions like adjustment of curvature, viaduct design and heights, suitable alteration of metro pillar locations etc., other than four of all these religious/sensitive structures have been saved, he said.

On the instructions of the Chief Minister and Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) Minister K T Rama Rao, further engineering refinement is being done to the metro alignment to save the remaining four religious structures also, he said.

The road widening will be restricted to 80 feet so that the religious/sensitive structures are not touched, Reddy said and added that learning lessons from the Phase 1 project in the rest of the city, the road would be widened at the station locations to 120 feet.

Rama Rao had recently tweeted: “Hon'ble CM KCR has instructed the Municipal Administration department to take forward the Metro project in Old city of Hyderabad. He also spoke to Chairman of L&T which is the agency executing the Metro Rail Project to expeditiously take up the project and promised all needed support.”

Currently, a total of 69.2 km elevated metro project network is in operation in Hyderabad, the release said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)