Hyderabad: Stating that the elevated Metro Rail project would have to go underground wherever there was threat to heritage structures, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao said, “Hyderabad has a glorious history of hundreds of years... Centuries old heritage markets like Sultan Bazaar cannot be demolished to take up the Metro Rail project. The project will affect even our Assembly building and Telangana Martyrs’ Memorial. In such places, the Metro Rail has to go underground. The project has to be realigned to prevent threat to heritage structures. Traders in Sultan Bazaar too are concerned about losing their livelihood. I too took part in agitation programmes against demolition of Sultan Bazaar two years ago on behalf of the TRS and had addressed public meetings,” Mr Rao said.
His comments came as a shock to HMR and L&T officials at a time when the project works are going on at a brisk pace and trial runs at Uppal depot are set to commence in a week.
When contacted, HMR managing director N.V.S. Reddy and L&TMRHL spokesperson Sanjay Kapoor refused to comment saying they would have to abide by the government’s directives.
