Hyd metro to be expanded: KCR

The project would be expanded to a distance of 200 km from the current 72 km to take care of the future urban transportation needs of the growing city

Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao today said the ongoing Hyderabad Metrorail project would be expanded to a distance of 200 km from the current 72 km to take care of the future urban transportation needs of the growing city.

While reviewing the progress of the project on Wednesday, Rao observed that the current scope of the project was fixed only in line with the existing traffic needs, according to a release from chief minister's office.

Rao and top government officials held a three-hour long review meeting with Y M Deosthalee, chairman of L&T Metrorail (Hyderabad) Limited, which is the concessionaire of the project, in a bid to clear the roadblocks for expediting the project. A small 8-km stretch of the 72-km project is proposed to be thrown open by April next year while the entire project would be completed by 2017.

The government is redrawing the master plan for Hyderabad and its suburbs with a view that the city's population would cross 20 million in the next few decades. This also includes expansion of metrorail.

Rao has asked the police and municipal officials to ensure the construction of the project on a war footing by diverting traffic wherever necessary and clearing land and other legal issues.