Hyderabad: The first phase of the prestigious Hyderabad Metro Rail project will be formally inaugurated by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 28 at the Miyapur police station.
Though the Telangana government was yet to get a formal confirmation from the Prime Minister’s Office, a team of Special Protection Group officials was already in Hyderabad to assess and inspect the security arrangements. The team accompanied by the city police officials has already visited the Miyapur police station where the Prime Minister will inaugurate the Hyderabad Metro by unveiling a pylon.
On the occasion the Prime Minister will also watch digital images of the evolution of the railway system in Hyderabad right from the Nizam State Railways to the state-of-the-art elevated Metro Rail project now coming up. Later he will take a ride on the Metro along with the state governor ESL Narasimhan and the Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao for some distance.
Hyderabad Metro Project is the biggest infrastructure project in the world taken up in the public-private partnership mode. State’s minister for urban development K Taraka Rama Rao said that the state government was keen that the Prime Minister inaugurate the project as it has many special features. “This is the first Metro project in the country wherein a 30km stretch was being thrown open in the very first phase”, he said.
While the 71km long Metro was being built on three busiest corridors of the city at a cost of Rs141.32 billion (Dh7.95 billion), the first line to become operational will be from Nagole to Miyapur and two corridors. 13km stretch from Miyapur to Ameerpet will be on Corridor I and from Ameerpet to Nagole will be on Corridor II.
Thousands of workers and engineers were working round the clock to give finishing touches to all the stations on the route and make everything ready and foolproof before the day of the inauguration. While a few sections of the route already had successful trial runs, a couple of other sections like Mettuguda to Begumpet, and Ameerpet to SR Nagar will have their trial runs soon to secure necessary clearances including safety certificates from concerned authorities. “Everything is on track. It will be a perfect launch”, said Hyderabad Metro rail managing director NVS Reddy.
Special attention was being paid to the security of all Metro stations as well as the nerve-centre for the project, the “Communication Based Train Control Centre” at Uppal. More than 2,000 policemen will be deployed for the security at all the stations and they will be assisted by the private security personnel of L&T, the developer and operator of the project.
