Hyderabad today joined Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Kochi to have its own metro rail system to boost urban transportation system and ease congestion in the growing metropolis.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi; Telangana State Governor, ESL Narasimhan, Chief Minister, K Chandrasekhara Rao and his son and IT & Urban Administration Minister, KT Rama Rao took the first ride between Miyapur and Kukatpally starting at 1415 hrs.

At the controls of the historic first official journey of the metro rail was the loco pilot, S Supriya. The entire trip from Miyapur to Kukatpally and back about 10 kms was completed in 30 minutes. Also present in the trip was K Laxman, President of the BJP State Unit.

This is the first phase of the Rs 14,132 crore metro rail project, which is envisaged to cover 72 km. From tomorrow, the people of Hyderabad-Secunderabad will have the services that will transport them a distance of 30 kms, the longest stretch in the country, to be operationalised at one go.

The price has been fixed at a minimum of Rs 10 to maximum of Rs 60. The route open will be from Nagole to Miyapur, which will cover a good number of people who travel daily from parts of Secunderabad to the busy Cyberabad, which houses all the IT biggies like Microsoft, Google, Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Oracle and Amazon, Novartis etc., that employ a few lakh employees.

The Hyderabad Metro Rail is developing three corridors and expects to complete the entire project and make it functional in one more year. The project got under way in August 2012 and saw many controversies, political issues and suffered a cost overrun of Rs 4,000 crore.

The PM also inaugurated a specially designed Pylon at Miyapur station that reflects the heritage and modernity of the burgeioning city, which is being placed as the best city among Indian cities to live in by global surveys.

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