Hyderabad: Union minister of state for labour and employment Bandaru Dattatreya on Sunday said the TS government and L&T authorities should ensure that the Metro Rail goes through highly populated areas of the Old City so that it caters to a large number of people.
“It should not be aligned through less populated areas due to political pressure. The state government is changing the Metro Rail alignment in the Old City for political reasons,” Mr Dattatreya said, but did not name anyone.
The comments assume significance in view of the forthcoming GHMC elections.
“While the original plan was the Metro Rail will go through densely populated areas, the changed plan would cover less populated areas. This will be a historical mistake. Politics should not come in the way of development. The state government should reconsider this. There should not be separate rules and systems for Old and New Cities. The Old City Metro line should go through densely populated areas up to Falaknuma,” Mr Dattatreya said.
He was speaking to reporters after a review meeting with South Central Railway and HMR officials on pending railway projects, where he said the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad should be connected by Metro Rail.
“Though there was a proposal to extend MMTS Phase-II too to the airport. I am informed that having a rail station near the terminal would be more useful than it being 5-km away. The state government, Metro Rail authorities, railways and airport authorities must collectively take a decision on this,” he said.
Mr Dattatreya said at least one section of MMTS Phase-II would be open for traffic, of the three — Bollaram-Medchal, Secunderabad-Ghatkesar and Falaknuma-Umdanagar by December 2017.
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