Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Friday flagged off the last remaining stretch of Hyderabad Metro Rail between Jubilee Bus Station (JBS)-Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS), Imlibun, for commercial operations and even took a ride accompanied by his Cabinet colleagues and senior officials.
16-minute ride
The 11-km, nine-station service will be available for general public from 6.30 a.m. Saturday onwards. For the inaugural run, the ride between JBS and MGBS was a breeze since it did not halt anywhere, save for a few minutes at Chikkadpally, otherwise it is expected to take 16 minutes from tomorrow.
The Chief Minister, had earlier, unveiled a plaque at JBS station to commemorate the occasion in the presence of Deputy Chief Minister Mehmood Ali, Ministers K.T. Rama Rao, T. Srinivas Yadav, V. Prashant Reddy, chief secretary Somesh Kumar, DGP M. Mahender Reddy, Municipal Administration secretary Arvind Kumar, HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy, Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar, L&T CEO and MD S.N. Subrahmanyan and L&MTRH CEO K.V.B. Reddy.
Then, he came to the platform, waved the green flag and hopped onto the train along with mediapersons and several partymen, including corporators. Mr. N.V.S. Reddy was seen explaining the route details to the Chief Minister, who also halted for a short while at Chikkadpally station, where he waved to the crowd.
Along the route, people were seen on balconies and rooftops to wave to KCR as the train moved through Bhoiguda, Musheerabad, Chikkadpally, Narayanaguda and Sultan Bazar. Unlike the other two corridors, in this Corridor 2 certain sections below has space for traffic movement only on one side near Bade Chowdi and Bhoiguda as road widening was not taken up down.
The Chief Minister was also taken around the MGBS station after which he posed for photographs with the metro teams before getting down at the station to return to his camp office. For the assembled mediapersons, it was a huge disappointment as the expected interaction or announcement of the next metro rail phase did not happen with Mr. Rama Rao and top officials also leaving with the CM.
Hyderabad Metro Rail is touted as the world’s largest public-private partnership project. “It ranks among one of most prestigious projects that we have executed,” said Mr. Subrahmanyan.
‘Extend metro further’
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao underscored the need to prepare a master plan to extend metro rail to all parts of the city to reduce pollution and make Hyderabad a global city, said HMR MD N.VS. Reddy on Friday. “The Chief Minister was overjoyed with the way metro stations were built, latest technologies adopted and observed that JBS and MGBS stations are like modern airports and expected them to buzz with people and activity,” he said.
Mr. Reddy, who was with the CM throughout the JBS-MGBS ride, also stated that KCR was happy about people of twin cities enjoying the metro rail service. “He was in a very jovial mood and kept mentioning local street names while checking the train service from the driver’s cabin,” added Mr. Reddy.
