Hyderabad: Old City Metro Rail works to start in January first week

Over 1100 properties will be affected in the road widening and station construction works and all the heritage and religious structures on the route will be safely preserved.

Hyderabad: The land acquisition process for the Old City Metro Rail between MG Bus Stand and Chandrayangutta, a stretch measuring 7.5 kilometers is underway on a war footing and by first week of January, 2025, the preliminary works related to the construction will be underway, Managing Director (MD), HMRL, NVS Reddy on Tuesday said.

The demolition of properties that have been identified will begin in the fourth week of December, 2024. Over 1100 properties will be affected in the road widening and station construction works and all the heritage and religious structures on the route will be safely preserved. Sketches of the 800 properties, out of the 1100 identified, have already been sent to the Collector, the MD while interacting with press persons on Tuesday said.

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At present, the proposals related to phase-2 Metro Rail in Old City, including its DPR (Detailed Project Report), the Construction Management Plant (CMP) and the alternative analysis are under technical and financial evaluation of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA, Government of India (GoI), he said.

The entire process of land acquisition for the Old City Metro, being taken-up as per the Land Acquisition Act, NVS Reddy said, adding that close to 103 religious and other sensitive structures on this stretch are being protected through innovative engineering solutions and careful adjustment of metro pillars and station locations. Since this August, the Metro Rail authorities had already issued notifications to owners of properties that are going to be affected.

The main road will be widened to 100 feet as per GHMC Master Plan, the road where the Metro stations will be located will be widened by 120 feet. The current width of the road varies from 50 feet to 60 feet from Darulshifa Junction to Shalibanda Junction, while it is 80 feet from Shalibanda Junction to Chandrayangutta. Thus, the affected portion of each property in majority cases will be about 20 to 25 feet from Darulshifa to Shalibanda; and about 10 feet from Shalibanda to Chandrayangutta.