It’s now official. Commissioning of the Hyderabad Metro Rail (HMR) project will only happen either in March ( ‘Ugadi’) or June (Telangana Formation Day anniversary) next year .

“A 20-km stretch — Nagole to Mettuguda (8 km) and Miyapur to S.R.Nagar (12 km) is ready for operations having obtained safety certification but opening isolated stretches will not ease traffic problems and is not viable,” disclosed HMR managing director N.V.S. Reddy on Tuesday.

Mr. Reddy indicated that efforts were on to bring the Miyapur -S.R. Nagar stretch completed up to Khairatabad (Corridor One - Miyapur to L.B.Nagar) bypassing the Ameerpet interchange station since the construction of the two-level complex could take some more time and may be completed by mid next year. Similarly, if railway permissions come soon, the Nagole to Mettuguda (Corridor Three - Nagole to Hi-Tec City/Raidurg) line could be extended up to Prakashnagar near Begumpet.

“It is up to the concessionnaire L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad (L&TMRH) to take a decision as opening isolated stretches will lead to losses. In Bangalore and Chennai, it did not serve any purpose and only led to a backlash. As per the Concession Agreement (CA), we cannot ask them to begin operations before July 2017, the date of completion. But they have sought extension of time and the government is looking into it,” he said.

Mr. Reddy was talking to the media after the Hyderabad Bicycling Club (HBC) had announced that the dedicated bicycles project for HMR was chosen as the ‘best social project’ from among 20 projects across the world during the recently held UN Habitat Conference held in Quito (Equador).

Asserting that the government was behind the project and L&TMRH was completing the works “fast”, the MD denied any “slow down” or that the concessionnaire was having second thoughts. “Some are deliberately spreading misinformation and are still continuing to file cases in an attempt to stall the works. We have tackled 290-odd cases successfully,” he added.

Earlier, HBC chairman D.V. Manohar, who had participated in the UN meet, said a model bike station was ready at Nagole metro station with 20 bicycles. The plan is to provide 10,000 high-end bicycles and e-bikes at all 63 metro stations on either side and also in some neighbourhoods to provide first and last mile connectivity to metro stations.