Citizen for Better Public Transport in Hyderabad today expressed concern about large-scale land acquisition and disruption of normal work along National Highway 9 during the construction of the Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd.
Dr C. Ramachandriah, Convenor of the organisation, said if the memorandum of understanding entered between HMRL and the Union Transport Ministry is implemented, this would cause wide-spread disruption to the people and their property along the NH corridor. He felt it would be better to scrap the project and manage by investing in cheaper and equally efficient alternatives such as the Multi-Modal Transport System and strengthening bus services. The MMTS requires few hundred crores versus Rs 14,000 crore for the metro project. He said about 677 properties will be acquired along the corridor.
HMRL, which is developing one of the three corridors on the NH -9 plans to set up 27 elevated stations along the 28.27-km-long stretch. This is part of the arrangement entered into between the developers and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Being developed by the concessionaire L&T Ltd., the metro rail will follow the centreline of the existing NH-9 along the median but preferably in the centre of the Right of Way (RoW) to maintain equal distribution of land on either side.
According to the agreement, elevated metro stations will be constructed clear of the NH RoW and shall be supported by piers located in the central median and either side of the footpaths. The effort would be to minimise obstruction to the flow of NH traffic during the construction phase of the metro project.
It is proposed to widen the NH-9 through demolition of required number of Government and private properties to ensure there is RoW as per the revised master plan approved by the Government. Additional lanes would be developed to maintain pathway either side.
HMRL states that none of the proposed flyovers will be constructed parallel to the metro rail viaduct. No additional properties would be acquired as some people feel.