The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Metro Rail work from June-July

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Metro Rail work from June-July

Special Correspondent

It covers three stretches of 66.39 km

HYDERABAD: One might smirk and dismiss it as a typical Hyderabadi trait, when you say you would meet him within five minutes. It’s just not the compulsive habit of the Hyderabadi to be ready to anything and everything, but the now infamous Hyderabadi traffic that forces anyone to be sceptical.

However, if everything goes as planned, the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR), one of the biggest infrastructure development projects in the country, would roll in the State capital some four years later, all it would take for one to reach LB Nagar from Miyapur is 45 minutes and just 22 minutes for travelling to Falaknuma from Jubilee Bus station.

Works of the Rs. 8,482 crore HMR project will begin by June or July 2008 as the financial bids are to be invited in March 2008 according to N.V.S. Reddy, MD of the HMR Limited.

The metro rail project covers three stretches of 66.39 km and works will be taken up simultaneously on all the three routes – Miyapur to LB Nagar (29.87 kms); Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma (14.78 kms) and Habsiguda to Shilparamam (21.7 kms). Running on the twin lines, each metro rail will cruise at a maximum speed of 80 kmph at a frequency of three to five minutes during peak hours.

Saviour

When completed, the metro rail system is expected to carry 15.77 lakh passengers every day and has scope for expanding the capacities to 25.70 lakh per day by end of 2020.

The metro rail project is being billed as the saviour of the State capital, which has been witnessing a phenomenal growth in vehicular population and resultant traffic congestion of mammoth proportions. The Hydeabad Metropolitan Authority area has now expanded to 1,905 sq. km having a population of more than 77 lakh people.“Once the quality of life goes down because of increasing travel time, it would be difficult to attract talented persons and investments”, Mr. Reddy said while delivering a talk on ‘Traffic and transportation scenario in Hyderabad’ at the Institution of Engineers here on Saturday.

MMTS Vs BRTS

On the debate over choosing the expensive Metro Rail system over the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS), Mr. Reddy argued that a perfect solution to the emerging traffic problems in Hyderabad was the integration of Metro Rail services, the BRTS and the existing MMTS. While it was not feasible to have a total BRTS system on Hyderabad roads, it could be adopted on stretches of the Inner Ring Road (IRR) as well as the Outer Ring Road.

Explaining the rationale behind choosing the Metro Rail system over BRTS, Mr. Reddy said a single lane BRTS would require 63 feet of space in a lane (double lane BRTS requires 92 feet space), which was not feasible in Hyderabad where the existing roads are of four to six lanes only, with bottlenecks that include graveyards and religious structures. Another factor that weighed against the BRTS was the banning of right turns on BRTS corridors.

However, Hyderabad would have the BRTS on seven corridors situated on the IRR and the ORR at a cost of Rs 541 crore. Similarly, the MMTS expansion is to cost over Rs 356.88 crore. The phase two of the MMTS is to link up Secunderabad with Manoharabad via Medchal (43 km), Falaknuma with Shamshabad airport via Umdanagar (20km) and Secunderabad with Bhongir via Ghatkesar (46 km).

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