Hyderabad: Preparatory works begin for Old City Metro Rail
♦ Efforts are being made to save religious and sensitive structures along the route
♦ Road widening at station locations will be restricted to 120 feet
Hyderabad: In a major boost to the metro rail at Old City, the Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited (HMRL) on Sunday said the preparatory works for undertaking the prestigious metro rail project have begun.
According to the officials, in the coming month, the HMRL authorities will also issue land acquisition notices to 1,000 properties for taking up the balance work of the metro rail in the old city.
“As per the instruction by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, preparatory works for undertaking metro rail works in the Old City have begun. The 5.5km balance Metro alignment in the Old City is from MGBS to Falaknuma via Darulshifa junction - Purani Haveli - Ettebar Chowk - Alijakotla - Mir Momin Daira - Haribowli - Shalibanda - Shamsheergunj and Aliabad. There will be 5 stations tentatively the names include Salarjung Museum, Charminar, Shalibanda, Shamsheergunj and Falaknuma. Though the metro station locations are about 500 meters away from Salarjung Museum and Charminar, these two stations are being named after them in view of their importance and pride of place in the city,” stated HMRL MD NVS Reddy.
There are 103 religious and other sensitive structures including 21 Masjids, 12 temples, 12 Ashoorkhanas, 33 dargas, 7 graveyards and 6 chillas in this stretch. Through engineering solutions like adjustment of curvature, viaduct design and heights, suitable alteration of metro pillar locations, etc., other than four of all these religious/sensitive structures have been saved. On the instruction of MA&UD Minister KT Rama Rao, further engineering refinement is being done to the metro alignment to save the remaining four religious structures also. To save the religious/sensitive structures, road widening will be restricted to 80 feet, he added.
Learning lessons from the Phase 1 project in the rest of the city, the road will be widened at the station locations to 120 feet. Preparation of individual sketches of the 1000-odd affected properties has started and land acquisition notices will be issued in about a month, said senior officer, HMRL.