The rail coaches from the Hyundai Rotem consortium are expected to arrive in Hyderabad by May next and the trial runs for the first phase of 8-km stretch between Nagole and Uppal of the 72 km metro project will be taken up by July. While the trials will go on for few months, the phase one will be ready for commercial operations by March 2015, N.V.S.Reddy, Managing Director, Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited, said.
Reddy said that the progress of the project has been thus far very encouraging in spite of facing several hardships on course. So far, the concessionaire L&T and Hyderabad Metro have invested about Rs 4,000 crore. This includes Rs 3,100 crore by L&T and Rs 900 crore by Hyderabad Metro.
The project has gathered momentum and more than a third of the piers have been erected. The pace is expected to go up next year as various elements of the project have now come together. The right of way issues too have been addressed, he said.
Referring to the land acquisition for the project, he said of the 269 acres of land assured to be handed over to L&T, 267 acres of land has been handed over so far. Only two acres of land is held up due to a court case and we expect that this would also be resolved shortly. The land acquisition in terms of providing ‘right of way,’ that is providing access for project development, is also being addressed in couple of busy areas.
TREE PLANTATION
“So far more than 1800 trees have been translocated with 98 per cent survival rate. We have also taken up massive tree plantation drive involving colleges and students. All these will ensure that there is good greenery for the project,” he explained.
Referring to the possibility of issuing smart cards to passengers, which will potentially double up as multipurpose cards, Reddy said several banks have evinced interest in taking part of this initiative. At least two banks will be chosen at the appropriate time, he hinted.
