On Tuesday, Hyderabad joined Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkatta, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kochi to have its own metro rail system to beef up transportation and ease congestion in the growing metropolis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao, his son and IT & Urban Administration Minister KT Rama Rao, and Telangana BJP chief K Laxman took the first ride on Hyderabad Metro, between Miyapur and Kukatpally.

Woman power

At the controls of the historic first official journey of the metro rail was loco pilot S Supriya. The entire trip from Miyapur to Kukatpally and back, about 10 km, was completed in 30 minutes.

The PM unveiled a special Pylon representing the heritage and modernity of the 426-year-old city at Miyapur.

This is the first phase of the ₹14,132-crore metro rail project, which is envisaged to cover 72 km. From Wednesday, the people of Hyderabad-Secunderabad can use the services that cover 30 km, the longest stretch in the country to be operationalised at one go.

The fare has been fixed at ₹10-60. The route that’s open now goes from Nagole to Miyapur, which is expected to attract commuters from the IT industry.

Thousands of people travel everyday from parts of Secunderabad to the busy Cyberabad, which houses all IT biggies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Oracle and Amazon, apart from pharma firms like Novartis, and employs a few lakh people.

The Hyderabad Metro Rail is developing three corridors. It expects to complete the entire project and make it functional in a year.

Several hurdles

The project got under way in August 2012 and faced many controversies and plenty of political issues.

It also suffered a cost overrun of ₹4,000 crore.

According to a PTI report, Modi also launched a mobile app named ‘T Savari’ for Metro passengers. He was given a PowerPoint presentation on the project at Miyapur station.

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