Linking Metro Rail to Shamshabad airport on cards: KTR

Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister K T Rama Rao said that the State government was working on the proposal to provide Metro Rail connectivity to Shamshabad airport. He said work was also under progress to come up with E-BRTS (Elevated Bus Rapid Transport System) to decongest traffic in densely populated areas of the city.

In a Twitter interaction with people with the #AskKTR tag on Sunday evening, Rama Rao responded positively to a tweet seeking an improved public transportation and infrastructure in Hyderabad especially in highly populated areas like Kukatpally, Hitec City and Gachibowli, seeking extension of Hyderabad Metro Rail services. He said that E-BRTS would address these problems and assured that Metro Rail services would soon be extended to the old city.

Further, the Minister explained about various initiatives of the State government for improving infrastructure in the city, during the 90-minute interactive session. He admitted that people’s concern with regard to increasing population influx into the city which in turn was increasing traffic, need for deforestation, better water supply and other infrastructure, were valid. “We are working on more infrastructure, better public transport solutions and also trying for future growth in dispersed areas,” he said.

Rama Rao said development of urban lung spaces was a high priority for the State government and the new Municipal Act ensures at least 10 per cent of budget from each municipality was allocated for green action plan. The State government was coming up with more than 50 new foot-over-bridges (FoBs) and skywalks in Hyderabad city to end woes of pedestrians. He said one of the L B Nagar flyover works were already completed and three more works would be completed at the earliest.

Responding to queries as to why development was still focused around western parts of Hyderabad, the Minister said the



State government was trying hard to divert new projects to areas like Adibatla and Uppal with the new Look East policy and was receiving good response. To make Hyderabad an improved tourist destination, he said the government initiated three major decisions including efforts to get world heritage status to Charminar and Golconda.

“We have already privatised sanitation maintenance in important tourist attraction centres for better maintenance. We are also working on improving direct airline connectivity to Europe and US,” he added.

Rama Rao gave a strong rebuttal to misconceptions and allegations against several ongoing projects for development of Hyderabad into an international city. He pointed out that global consulting leader Mercer India had rated Hyderabad as the city with best quality of living standards over 5 years in a row starting from 2014-19. 

He also rubbished claims of severe water scarcity looming over the State capital and stated that Hyderabad would be one of the few cities in the country without a water shortage problem after successful completion of Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme which also assures drinking water to Hyderabad. He also denied any financial crunch for Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) and said it was an important focus area for future infrastructure requirement of Hyderabad.

Rama Rao stated that a comprehensive road maintenance programme was kick-started and people would soon see betterment in road connectivity. He stated that the State government was planning to build slip roads and missing link roads under the new plan for development of areas like Gopanapally. When asked about lifting GO 111, he said, “Well, it needs to be thought out carefully. We have to make sure the two lakes — Osman Sagar and Himayat Sagar — are well maintained even if we make changes to the GO 111.”