Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and others went on a metro rail ride from the Miyapur metro station to Kukatpally metro station and back for a distance of about 12 km to signal the launch of the much awaited public transport service on Tuesday.
Mr. Modi also unveiled the inaugural pylon at the station premises and also opened the station by cutting the ribbon before going on the metro rail ride on specially decked up train. Deputy Chief Minister Mehmood Ali, Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao, BJP TS chief K. Laxman, legislature party leader G. Kishan Reddy, Chief Secretary S.P. Singh, L&T Metro Rail Hyderabad chairman S.N. Subramanyam, MD Shivanand Nimbargi, HMR MD N.V.S. Reddy were among the VVIPs who travelled with the Prime Miniser.
Earlier, the Prime Minister witnessed a few promotional films explaining about the salient features of the unique public, private partnership project where L&TMRH is investing up to Rs. 12,764 crore of the total project cost of Rs.14,123 crore with the Centre chipping in with viability gap funding of Rs.1258 crore. L&TMRH will be running the system for 35 years and this can be extended for a further 25 years as per the Concessionnaire Agreement.
Mr. Modi was briefed about the project and the uniqueness of being the first private sector funded totally elevated metro rail project in the country by Mr. Rama Rao, also the son of Chief Minister KCR, who was seated right beside him during the journey and by Mr. Subramanyam sitting across in the train during the 10 minute ride.
Full fledged commercial operations would be from Wednesday between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. It will run between Nagole to Miyapur via Ameerpet interchange station with three car trains to be run at 15 minute intervals and a carrying capacity of 1000 passengers. Tickets and pre-paid metro smart cards are already available in select stations of Nagole, Tarnaka, Prakash Nagar & S R Nagar now and throughout the 24 station counters for the 30 km inaugural stretch.
Tickets are priced between Rs.10 and Rs. 60 from minimum to a distance of 26 km. The metro system is being built across three dense traffic corridors — L.B. Nagar to Miyapur, Jubilee Bus Station to Falaknuma and Nagole to Hi-Tec City/Raidrug for 72 km in total.
