Hyderabad: Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MA&UD) minister, KT Rama Rao directed the GMR Airport authorities to hand over 48 acres of identified land in the airport area for the construction of the Metro Rail depot.
He also instructed the departments and organizations concerned to hand over the identified government properties to Hyderabad Airport Metro Ltd so that construction works can be initiated immediately.
Chairing a review meeting on the Airport Metro and other expansion projects on Thursday, KTR directed the chief secretary, A Santhi Kumari, to hold periodical coordination meetings and facilitate expeditious execution of the Airport Metro project.
The CS also interacted with senior officers concerned in the Government of India (GOI) for approval of the Rs 9100 crore BHEL-Lakdikapul and Nagole-LB Nagar (36 km) project.
A detailed power point presentation was made by Metro Rail MD, NVS Reddy at the meeting.
He advised the special chief secretary of finance, K Ramakrishna Rao and MA&UD special chief secretary Arvind Kumar to explore different funding options for the new metro projects.
KTR also instructed the collectors of Hyderabad, Medchal and Sangareddy districts to identify vacant government land parcels closer to the existing and proposed metro stations for developing multi-level car parking complexes.
The minister further suggested the introduction of additional coaches, improving feeder services, and developing better footpaths.
With this, the current metro ridership of 5 lakh per day can be doubled and vehicular congestion will eventually be reduced in the city.
KTR also held talks with Akbaruddin Owaisi and directed the Metro Rail MD to expedite the land acquisition process in the Old City metro corridor and start construction.
He also discussed the plan for further extension of the line to the airport from Falaknuma.
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