Hyderabad: While Hyderabad Metro Rail operations have been planned in six stages, connectivity between these stages remains a major problem.
Stage-I commercial operations between Nagole and Mettuguda, spread over 8 km, are scheduled to commence from March 2015.
But the next connectivity from Mettuguda to Ameerpet is being taken up in stage-3 instead of stage-2, which will take one more year from March 2015 to complete.
Meanwhile doubts are being raised whether the stage-I will serve any purpose for commuters as it is confined to just 8 km on which hardly any major educational institutions, offices or commercial centres are located.
The postponement of commercial operations to March 2015 against the earlier deadline of December 2014 has also created fresh doubts whether the project would meet the actual deadlines.
The deadline set by the state for L&T to complete the entire 72-km project is July 5, 2017. However, only 8 km will become operational by March 2015, leaving a little over 2 years to complete the remaining.
The 8-km stretch passes along the Uppal, Habsiguda, Tarnaka and Mettuguda main roads.
The stretch only covers the lands belonging to Survey of India, NGRI, OU, CCMB, National Institute of Nutrition and to SCR, which normal commuters hardly visit on a daily basis.
Citizens say that it would have been useful for commuters if Metro Rail operations were available from Nagole to Ameerpet in stage-I and stage-2.
They say the main idea of Metro is to solve traffic problem by encouraging people to use the Metro rather than personal vehicles.
But the launching of commercial operations on 8 km beginning from Nagole, which is an isolated place in the city, doesn’t serve any purpose.
“A large number of people from Nagole, Uppal, Habsiguda and Tarnaka travel to Secunderabad, Begumpet, Ameerpet every day for various needs. Many students travel to Ameerpet for training in various computer institutes, coaching centres etc. If the officials take steps to extend the connectivity to Ameerpet instead of Mettuguda, it would be useful,” said P. Raghuram, an Uppal resident who works in Begumpet.
However, HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy, justified the launching of stage-I works from Nagole to Mettuguda to prove that Metro Rail was a reality despite all the odds.
“By launching stage-I between Nagole and Mettuguda, we want to show the entire city that the project will happen and will cover the entire 72-km stretch within the deadline,” he said.
Demolition issues clog Corridor-II
Hyderabad: The controversial Corridor-II from Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma has been planned only in the sixth and last stage.
The 15-km stretch is expected to be operational in 2017.
However, the officials are yet to address the contentious issue of demolishing the existing structures at the heritage markets in Sultan Bazaar and Badi Chowdi, and the religious places on the Metro Rail path.
Corridor-II is said to be densest among the three Metro corridors.
This congested stretch will be the last to get Metro services, thanks to the controversies surrounding it.
The roads in this stretch are extremely narrow, with very little scope for taking up road widening to enable Metro Rail. No solution seems to have been offered for this.
Secondly, a five-storied commercial complex was promised in Putlibowli to rehabilitate the traders who will be displaced by the project. It’s been two and a half years but the project is nowhere near implementation.
HMR MD said that they are waiting for revised designs for the complex as the designes they received were not satisfactory.
The traders, however, are pressing for realig-nment of the route as they want to save the heritage markets.
Pipelines delay works
Sudheer Goutham | DC
Hyderabad; Underground utility lines like drains, water pipes and electricity lines are proving to be major roadblocks in the timely completion of HMR works.
They are delaying the work in the area by a couple of months to a year.
L&T, the project developer, looks at it as a major hindrance in meeting the set deadline for Phase-II which is in July 2017.
V.B. Gadgil, chief executive and managing director, L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) said, “These underground utilities that are surprisingly being encountered at the pillar points are a cause of concern. It is delaying the ongoing works as we have to make an alternate arrangement if the utility is functional, and only then we can proceed.”
The 1,200 mm Krishna water pipe line, for instance, was encountered along Metro Corridor-III at Mettuguda and took a year to get shifted to an adjoining location.
HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy said that neither the GHMC nor the Water Board had any maps to show the existence of such a drain.
Similarly, last September, the metro team was taken by surprise when they dug out a decades-old Nizam era storm water drain at the Public Gardens– Telugu University line and the M.J. Market stretch. The drain, was 10-feet deep.
