Two corridors to be completed by year-end, says Managing Director

The Government will be giving a year’s extension to the L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) till July 2018 for completing the project in all the three corridors save for the old city section, announced Hyderabad Metro Rail managing director N.V.S. Reddy here on Saturday.

As per the Concessionaire Agreement (CA) signed between the State Government and L&TMRH, the project was to be completed by July 2017 but considering the several issues the concessionaire had to confront with traffic, land acquisition and several court cases, the deadline has to be extended.

“It is the world’s biggest metro project being done in one go that too with private sector money under the private-public partnership mode so far and a year’s delay for a project of this size is acceptable,” he said.

No differences

Claiming that the “L&TMRH and the Government have no differences,” he said, even experts accept that the construction is going fast. “Two corridors — Miyapur to L.B.Nagar (29 km) or Corridor one and Nagole to Hi-Tec City (26 km) of Corridor Three (which is extended up to Raidurg) ) are to be completed by the year-end,” he disclosed. Briefing the media at the Metro Rail over Bridges construction sites of Oliphenta and Alugaddabavi near Secunderabad railway station, Mr. Reddy said Corridor Three could be ready up to Begumpet railway station by middle of the year, though he was not inclined to set a specific date.

“We are planning to start operations between Miyapur to S.R.Nagar (Corridor one, 11- km stretch), to check for systems functioning. This coupled with running the service from Nagole to Begumpet (16 km) could be thrown open to public in mid 2017,” he explained.

Cost escalation

With regard to any cost escalation, he said a mechanism was indicated in CA on dealing with it. The independent engineer and the HMR Board will look into the L&TMRH claims before deciding on the precise estimate after the project is done.

The MD said metro rail engineers have to be patted for working under challenging conditions with heavy traffic, having to deal with water and sewer pipelines, telecom cables and high tension power lines.