In a major decision, the State government has decided to extend the metro rail services in all the directions, beyond the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, in some cases, with an estimated cost of ₹60,000 crore in the coming years.
The government has also decided to operate a second airport in addition to the GMR international airport which was currently registering footfall of 2.5 crore passengers every year. Decisions to this effect were taken by the State Council of Ministers which met here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday.
Briefing reporters about the deliberations, Minister for Municipal Administration K. T. Rama Rao said works on metro services connecting LB Nagar to Peddamberpet, Uppal to ECIL X roads, Insapur to Miyapur, Miyapur to Lakdi-ka-Pul and others would be taken up. “A double decker metro line with road and rail routes will be developed between Jubilee Bus Station and Tumkunta. Similar line is proposed between Patny and Kandlakoya. Metro services are proposed to be launched from airport to Kandukur,” he said.
The Hyderabad Metro Rail authorities had been asked to prepare detailed project reports in this connection and submit them soon for the government to give its approval for the expansion works. The development follows the recent announcement on expanding the metro rail from Raidurg to RG International Airport spanning 31 km and taking the total length of the metro to rail to morethan 100 km.
On the second airport, he said the government proposed to utilise the Hakimpet airport, under the control of Indian Airforce as the second airport. A request would be sent to the Centre to allow utilisation of Hakimpet airport for operation of civil aircraft too. He cited the example of airports at Goa and Pune which were operating in hybrid mode and said similar proposal would be sent to the Centre in respect of Hakimpet airport.
“Since Hyderabad is growing fast, there is a felt need for another airport. The Cabinet had therefore decided to request the Centre to permit use of Hakimpet airport in this direction,” he said.
