By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net,
Hyderabad : The central government has increased the estimated cost of the Hyderabad Metro rail project by nearly Rs 2000 crore. The union urban development minister S Jaipal Reddy said that the cost has gone up from Rs 9900 crore to Rs 11800 crores.
Addressing a public meeting in Hyderabad along with the union finance minister P Chidambaram and the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, Jaipal Reddy said that the decision was taken by the central government only two days ago. The union cabinet has revised the cost of the project with in three months of giving its approval to the project with an outlay of Rs 8760 crore. Later it was increased to Rs 9996 crore.
Jaipal Reddy said that the project cost was upwardly revised as the number of bogies for the metro trains has been increased to more than 400.
P Chidambaram said that central government was providing a grant of Rs 2360 crore for the Metro project. This will be part of Rs 9061 crore for the 213 projects Andhra Pradesh was given by the central government under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban renewal mission. “More money will be forthcoming if deserving projects are presented by the government to the center. We are quite happy to support the Metro project and I am sure that the Metro will be a great boon for the citizen of Greater Hyderabad”, he said.
The cost of the project has been increased even as the process of choosing the private partner for the development of Metro project has been delayed. Five consortiums including prominent multi national companies are bidding for this ambitious project., which will cover the three routes of 66.39 crore at the cost of Rs 140 crore per kms and will become operational by 2009-10. The routes to be covered include Miyanpur in western suburbs to L B Nagar in the eastern suburbs passing through the heart of the city Punjagutta, Khairtabad Moazzam Jahi Market, Chaitanyapuri in the north to Falaknuma in the south through Secunderabad, and third route from Osmania University to Yusufguda. Apart from developing Rail Terminals at Nampally, Secunderabad and Begumpet, the Metro will also be complemented by a bus based rapid transit system with terminals at Miyanpur, Dilsukhnagar, Imlibun and Charminar. The existing Multi Module Train service will also continue along with Metro.
Chidambaram was in the city for the inauguration of the second phase of Krishna river water supply project to Hyderabad, which will bring in additional 90 million gallon of water per day. The project, completed at the cost of Rs 1087 crore will take the total supply of water from Krishna to Hyderabad to 180 MGD.
Chidambaram also inaugurated the Rajiv Arogya Sri scheme, a free health insurance scheme for the poor. Describing it as first of its kind in the country and the most ambitious initiative of the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy Chidamabaram said that it will be a great boon for more than 2 crore poor families in the state as it will provide free treatment and medical care for 863 diseases and procedure at many major hospitals in the state.
Under the scheme the state government will pay a premium of Rs 279 per family and the poor families will get the treatment without cost of a single rupee.